URBANA, Ill., Jan. 16 (UPI) -- A University of Illinois study shows that tomatoes and broccoli are better at shrinking prostate tumors when they are eaten alone.
In a study published in Cancer Research, John Erdman of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign fed a diet containing 10 percent tomato powder and 10 percent broccoli powder to laboratory rats that had been implanted with prostate cancer cells.
The powders were made from whole foods, so the effects of eating the entire vegetable could be compared with consuming individual parts of them as a nutritional supplement.
After 22 weeks the tumors were weighed. The tomato/broccoli combo outperformed all other diets in shrinking prostate tumors. Biopsies of tumors were evaluated at Ohio State University, confirming that tumor cells in the tomato/broccoli-fed rats were not proliferating as rapidly.
"When tomatoes and broccoli are eaten together, we see an additive effect," said Erdman. "We think it's because different bioactive compounds in each food work on different anti-cancer pathways."
