The scientific establishment has effectively conceded that a high consumption of tomato products reduces the risk of prostate cancer. Some supplement companies claim that this is all due to lycopene, the red colouring in the fruit; but new evidence shows that other compounds in the tomato (or ‘love apple’ as it was first known) contribute to the health benefits as well.

In addition to lycopene, tomatoes also contain a variety of flavonoids, and a recent series of cell culture studies has conclusively shown that extract of whole tomato is more effective at killing cancer cells than lycopene alone.

The first conclusion to draw from these studies is that micro- and phyto-nutrients do not work well when used singly, as if they were drugs. Instead, they work best in combinations, such as those that occur in foods. The second conclusion is that if we were to take all the micro- and phytonutrients that reduce risk (by adding, for example, vitamin D to the tomato extract as is done in NutriShield), the risks would be reduced even further. Who knows – if we could assemble the total nutritional package, maybe prostate cancer could be made to disappear.