Have Some Tomato Sauce with Your Broccoli

Men may get more prostate cancer protection from tomatoes and broccoli if they eat the two together rather than separately. A 22-week study in rats implanted with prostate cancer cells suggests that a tomato/broccoli diet (in this case, food containing 10 percent broccoli powder and 10 percent tomato powder) reduced prostate tumors more effectively than other diets studied, including those containing either tomato or broccoli powder alone, a supplement of lycopene (the pigment in tomatoes believed to protect the prostate from cancer) or finasteride, a drug used to treat enlarged prostates. The only approach that worked almost as well as the broccoli/tomato combo was castration, the University of Illinois researchers reported. They suggested that the dietary approach might help older men with slow-growing prostate cancer who have chosen watchful waiting over chemotherapy and radiation. To get the effects seen in the study, they advise that men eat 1.4 cups of raw broccoli daily, plus 2.5 cups of fresh tomato or one cup of tomato sauce or 1/2 cup of tomato paste. The study was published in the January 15, 2007 issue of Cancer Research.


...from Dr. Weil website