A Tomato A Day Can Lower Risk of Heart Disease

According to a new Harvard study, just one serving a day of tomato-based foods such as pizza or tomato sauce could lower your risk for heart disease by as much as 30 percent. “The results are pretty enticing,” says study author Howard Sesso, “They’re encouraging enough for us to do more studies.”

According to a new Harvard study, just one serving a day of tomato-based foods such as pizza or tomato sauce could lower your risk for heart disease by as much as 30 percent. “The results are pretty enticing,” says study author Howard Sesso, “They’re encouraging enough for us to do more studies.”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.Controlling for factors such as age, family history, smoking status and other health indicators, they found that women who consumed seven or more servings of tomato-based foods a week – including tomato juice, tomatoes, tomato sauce or pizza – 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.Whatever the cause, Sesso 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.” According to Sesso, “There’s a potential that regular servings of tomatoes can have a dramatic effect on cardiovascular risk.”(Source: M.S.W.: ZoeMed: Cardiac Life Centre: 28th July 2003)