Dietary Intake of Tomato and Lycopene and Risk of All-Cause and Cause-Specific Mortality: Results From a Prospective Study.

Xin Xu,Yi Zhu,Shiqi Li

doi:10.3389/fnut.2021.684859

Abstract

Evidence on the relationship between consumption of tomato or lycopene and mortality is limited. We investigated the associations of raw tomato, tomato catsup or lycopene intake with all-cause and cause-specific mortality using data from the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal, and Ovarian (PLCO) screening trial. A multivariate Cox proportional hazards model was used to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). During a total of 1,672,715 follow-up years, 24,141 all-cause deaths, 7,534 cardiovascular disease (CVD) deaths and 7,161 cancer deaths occurred. Total mortality was statistically significantly inversely associated with intake of raw tomato (Q5 vs. Q1; HR, 0.95 [95% CI, 0.91–0.99]), tomato catsup (Q5 vs. Q1; HR, 0.93 [95% CI, 0.89–0.97]), and moderate lycopene (Q4 vs. Q1; HR, 0.88 [95% CI, 0.85–0.93]). CVD mortality was significantly inversely related with intake of moderate raw tomato (Q4 vs. Q1; HR, 0.90 [95% CI, 0.83–0.97]), tomato catsup (Q5 vs. Q1; HR, 0.92 [95% CI, 0.85–0.99]), and moderate lycopene (Q4 vs. Q1; HR, 0.90 [95% CI, 0.83–0.98]). Dietary intake of raw tomato (Q5 vs. Q1; HR, 1.04 [95% CI, 0.96–1.14]) and tomato catsup (Q5 vs. Q1; HR, 1.00 [95% CI, 0.93–1.08]) were not related with cancer mortality. Moderate dietary intake of lycopene was significantly associated with a lower cancer mortality (Q4 vs. Q1; HR, 0.89 [95% CI, 0.82–0.96]). There was a non-linear J-shaped association between consumption of raw tomato, tomato catsup or lycopene and total mortality (P for non-linearity <0.001). In conclusion, in this large nationally representative sample of US adult population, tomato products, and lycopene intake were associated with lower risks of total and CVD mortality. Moderate consumption of lycopene was also related with a reduced cancer mortality. Further clinical studies and dietary intervention studies are warranted to confirm our premilitary findings.

Highlights

Tomato and tomato products have been widely recognized as healthy foods because of their high content of lycopene
Adult, US population, moderate intakes of raw tomato, tomato catsup, and lycopene were associated with reduced risks of all-cause and cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality
Moderate lycopene intake was inversely associated with cancer mortality

Summary

Introduction

Tomato and tomato products have been widely recognized as healthy foods because of their high content of lycopene. Human trials have shown the potential of dietary lycopene or lycopene supplement in reducing levels of proinflammatory mediators and oxidative stress [1], regulating cardiovascular variables [2] and blood pressure [3], and improving the lipid profile [4]. Tomato Intake and Mortality Variables Q1 (n = 20,508) Q2 (n = 20,276) Q3 (n = 20,619). Male Female Smoking status (n, %) Never Current Former Education (n, %) ≤High school ≥Some college BMI (n, %)

Methods

Results

Conclusion