Diet Rich in Tomato and Soy Cuts Prostate Cancer Risk

Tomato and soy can reduce the risk of prostate cancer in men, according to a new study.

The latest study on how diet can affect the risk of prostate cancer was conducted by researchers at University of Illinois. Prostate cancer occurs in tissues of the prostate - a gland that is present below the bladder and in front of the rectum in men. Another recent study had shown that foods rich in vitamin A could stop the cancer from spreading.

The present study was conducted on mice who were genetically tweaked to develop the cancer and were fed diets that had tomato and soy.

"In our study, we used mice that were genetically engineered to develop an aggressive form of prostate cancer. Even so, half the animals that had consumed tomato and soy had no cancerous lesions in the prostate at study's end. All mice in the control group-no soy, no tomato-developed the disease," said John Erdman, a U of I professor of food science and nutrition.

The mice models were fed a diet that had either of the four diets; one diet had 10 percent whole tomato powder, the second diet had 2 percent soy germ, the third diet had tomato powder plus soy germ powder, and the last diet had no soy or tomato powder.

Erdman said that mice fed on a combination of tomato and soy powder were more likely to be tumor-free than those that were given just one of the two powders. "Only 45 percent of mice fed both foods developed the disease compared to 61 percent in the tomato group, and 66 percent in the soy group," he said in a news release.

National Cancer Institute says that an estimated 238,590 new cases will be diagnosed and about 29,720 men will die from the cancer in the U.S. this year.

Krystle Zuniga, co-author of the paper, said that men who want to lower the risk of prostate cancer should have about three-four servings of tomato products per week along with one or two servings of soy foods daily.

Also, researchers said that eating whole fruits and vegetables is a better way to prevent cancer occurrence than taking supplements.

"It's better to eat a whole tomato than to take a lycopene supplement. It's better to drink soy milk than to take soy isoflavones. When you eat whole foods, you expose yourself to the entire array of cancer-fighting, bioactive components in these foods," Erdman added.

The study is published in the journal Cancer Prevention Research.