Washington, July 24: Tomato, rich in antioxidant lycopene, can do wonders to your health.
A new Harvard study, published in the issue of the American Society for Nutritional Sciences, has revealed that just one serving a day of tomato-based foods such as tomato juice, tomatoes, tomato sauce or even pizza could lower the risk for heart disease by as much as 30 percent.


"The results are pretty enticing," says study author Howard Sesso, an assistant professor at the Harvard School of Public Health and Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.



For the study, Sesso and his colleagues reviewed the diets of approximately 40,000 women from the ongoing Women's Health Study, which was begun 11 years ago to follow women who, at the time, were free from cancer and cardiovascular disease.

They found that women who consumed seven or more servings of tomato-based foods a week had a nearly 30 percent reduction in risk for cardiovascular disease compared with women who ate less than one and one-half servings a week.



The study was sparked by research that has shown a connection between an increase in the diet of the antioxidant lycopene and a reduction in risk for prostate cancer, Sesso says.

Whatever the cause, he says, "our study suggests preliminary evidence that consuming a number of servings of tomato-based foods per week may lower the risk of cardiovascular disease." Bureau Report