• Question: I once heard that tomato ketchup can help prevent cancer, is this true and if so how does it prevent it?

    Asked by leoniep to MarkF, Mark, Michael, Panos, Sarah on 18 Jun 2010 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Mark Fogg

      Mark Fogg answered on 17 Jun 2010:

      Chemicals in fruit and veg called Antioxidants are believed to help prevent cancer, tomato sauce contains Antioxidants from the tomatoes used to make it.

    • Photo: Mark Travis

      Mark Travis answered on 17 Jun 2010:

      Well, I think that is a big overstatement…… but tomatoes have anti-oxidants in them that mop up things called free radicals. Free radicals can cause mutations in your DNA, which (if they mutate the wrong gene) can cause cancer. So, it may be true that tomato ketchup could help mop up free radical, but to state that it will help prevent cancer requires a lot more research.

    • Photo: Panos Soultanas

      Panos Soultanas answered on 18 Jun 2010:

      Hi leoniep,

      processed tomato ketchap is not that good but tomatoes are very good indeed. It has anti-oxidant activities that help protect your DNA against damaging oxygen radicals and therefore it is very good for you and helps to counteract cancer.

    • Photo: Michael Loughlin

      Michael Loughlin answered on 18 Jun 2010:

      well this is first chance i get to link to a proper research paper

      http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16929242

      according to this paper you are absolutely right
      there seems to be anumber of mechanisms..if you click on some of the review articles on the right of the screen i linked to they may tell you more..but it seems a number of nutrients in tomato do protect and prevent
      good question

    • Photo: Sarah Burl

      Sarah Burl answered on 18 Jun 2010:

      I am afraid i don’t about this one, these myths are usually based on an ingredient found in something but would need excessisve amounts to make any difference. Tomatoes are anti-oxidants so you would be better off eating more tomatoes than eating too much tomato ketchup as it probably has a bunch of other things in it that are harmful to you.

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