This article is very similar to my article, "Nature's Dynamic Duo's: Green Tea and Papaya". The combo has been shown to dramatically decrease prostate cancer risk. Except I am focusing on Tomato in this post as opposed to Papaya.
Why?
The issue is really not so much about the healing benefits of green tea and specifically papaya, but green tea and all fruits and vegetables containing the antioxidant Lycopene, which is in Tomato, Papaya, Watermelon, and several other foods I list below. Although the studies in Far East on this subject often focus on Papaya, in the West, the Tomato is the "King of Lycopene", and is a more practical to obtain Lycopene in the Western Diet.
Green Tea has also been shown to decrease ovarian cancer risk, I have found "some" connections between Lycopene's ability to fight ovarian and other forms of cancer, especially in that there is a growing mindset in science and "progressive" medicine that all cancers are the same, they just attact different parts of the body. More posts to come as I dig deeper into this phenomenom.
Prostate cancer was the subject of a study in Australia that looked at 130 prostate cancer patients and 274 hospitalized controls. The scientists found that men who consumed the most lycopene-rich fruits and vegetables such as tomato, papaya, watermelon, and so forth were 82% less likely to have prostate cancer. In this study, green tea also exerted a powerful anti-cancer effect. When lycopene-rich foods were consumed with green tea, the combination was even more effective, an outcome the researchers credited to their synergy. (Asia Pacific Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 2007)
Nonetheless, my daily eating regiment allows me to get this dynamic duo into my routine on a daily basis, by making green tea and saving it in glass containers as one of the liquids in my power smoothies, and I generally eat a lot of tomato in my salads, and I steam tomato along with broccoli and other steamed vegetables. And sometimes I love just to slice a tomato, and eat it raw, sprinkled with a bit of Pink Himalayan Salt, no different that eating an apple when I am sitting in front of the computer.
Why do I steam tomato? Studies show that the amount of Lycopene available increases with cooked/steamed tomato as opposed to raw. From time to time, I also have diced tomato, freeze them, and add tomato chunks to my daily smoothies.
Unlike the dynamic duo honey and cinnamon, where they know the chemical reactions that take place between the hydrogen peroxide produced from honey and the essential oils from real cinnamon (real as in Ceylon Cinnamon), I couldn't find the scientific analysis of why these two powerhouses, that is, Green Tea and Lycopene, have such an exponential effect on prostate health and cancer fighting when combined.
Foods high in Lycopene
Gac (gac blows all the rest away, it has up to 70 times the Lycopene as tomato, Gac can be ordered and shipped to the USA read the article here)
Tomato (Considered the Lycopene Champion of the west)
Rosehip (rosehip is a herb that is readily available in the USA)
Papaya
Grapefruit
Watermelon
Pink Guava
To a lesser degree in other foods such as Asparagus, Red Cabbage, Parsley, Carrot, several others
A quick link pertaining to this subject
Green Tea cuts ovarian Cancer Risk
NOTE: More Lycopene is available in tomato when cooked or steamed – according to studies I researched, but I eat a lot of raw tomato as well. It may be hard to cook tomato daily, although the most practical approach might me to steam tomato, as I do in a bamboo steamer, which is very simple, it sits over a frying pan full of water.
I steam tomato along with other veggies such as broccoli and spinach. I know for some it might be hard to get into the mindset of eating broccoli and such, but once you get started, steamed veggies can be addictive, especially if you drizzle them with some wild raw honey, and/or some olive oil or quality salad dressing like am olive oil/apple cider vinegar blend. Think of getting into this groove, and still feeling free to enjoy a juicy turkey burger and all those other "real food treats" we love whenever the need arises
~stay healthy~
you might also like
My Top 10 Prostate Health Superfooods Go to all my articles in "Eat Smart", the science of food
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