Western diets lycopene

The characteristic deep-red color of ripe tomato fruit and related products is mainly due to lycopene. This color serves as an important indicator of their quality. Tomatoes and tomato foods are an important source of carotenoids for humans and are a major source of lycopene in the Western diet. Other important sources of dietary lycopene include watermelon, guava, rose hip, papaya and pink grapefruit (Gross, 1987,1991 Beerh and Siddappa, 1959 Mangels et al., 1993) (Table 4.3). 

Human diets and tissues contain six carotenoids in significant amounts (listed in Table 1). Lycopene is typically the carotenoid consumed in greatest amounts in Western diets. Per capita intakes in Europe and North America average from 1.6 to more... 

Lycopene was introduced into the Western world after the Spanish conquistador Hernando Cortes was offered some tomatoes by the Aztec emperor Montezuma. Cortes disregarded this courteous gesture and went on to conquer Mexico from 1529 to 1531. In the states bordering Mexico — Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California — tomatoes and other Mexican-Indian foods soon began to be adopted but also made their way to Europe. In Italy, tomatoes were mentioned as early as in 1554 and were then slowly assimilated. Their initial color was yellow (porno d oro) they obtained their red appearance only after years of cultivation. Today, tomatoes, the major source of lycopene, are an important part of the Mediterranean diet. 

Kim, D.J. et al., Chemoprevention by lycopene of mouse lung neoplasia after combined initiation treatment with DEN, MNU, and DMH, Cancer Lett, 120, 15, 1997. Risio, M. et al.. Apoptosis, cell replication, and Western-style diet-induced tumori-genesis in mouse colon. Cancer Res., 56, 4910, 1996. 

The potential beneficial effects of lycopene in human health have been reviewed extensively in recent years [39-45] numerous observational studies have consistently shown an inverse relationship between the consumption of lycopene-rich diets (tomato or tomato-based foods) or plasma lycopene levels with the risk of cancers at various sites [46, 47]. The strongest inverse relationship was that for prostate cancer [2, 46-49], one of the most prevalent male cancers in the western populations and common across the world other significant inverse relationships were found with lung and stomach cancers. 

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