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Observational epidemiological surveys (WG 3) page 4
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Introduction
Although not originally found in the Mediterranean area, tomato is one of the most used
vegetables of the Mediterranean diet. This diet is known to be beneficial for health especially
with regard to the development of chronic degenerative diseases (Corpet and Gerber, 1997.
Gerber and Corbet, 1997). Therefore, tomatoes appear especially important in terms of public
health since they are consumed in large quantities and rich in several compounds believed to
protect or reduce the risk for chronic degenerative diseases. Carotenoids are among the first
compounds to have attracted the attention of scientists on the effect of fruit and vegetables,
and tomato is especially rich in one of them: lycopene. β-carotene is also present together
with vitamin C, and vitamin E in the seeds. Moreover, there is a growing interest for other
compounds present in tomatoes like folates and phenolics though not enough human studies
are available to really estimate the effect of phenolics particularly on human health. Finally,
tomatoes can be easily processed in several products which are consumed in large amounts,
and during this processing, the main components of tomatoes (carotenoids) are preserved and
even concentrated. Because of this widespread and large consumption, tomatoes appear as
one of the most interesting food in terms of health.
Objectives
The objective of Working Group 3 was to summarise the state of the art with regards to the
potential protective (or risk-reducing) effect of tomatoes and their constituents with regard to
chronic degenerative disease, especially cancers, cardio-vascular disease, lung function, lens
opacities and ageing.
It was decided:
1) to focus on studies reporting on tomatoes (fresh, cooked, processed whenever specified)
intake
2) to summarise all studies related to fruit and vegetables because most studies do not
distinguish between the various vegetables
3) to cover the studies related to the specific nutriments and microcompounds found in
tomatoes
4) to give the most important place to the antioxidants carotenoids, vitamins C and E because,
so far most of the previous studies report on these compounds, but also to give the main
results -yet limited- on folates and phenolics which are certainly very important with regard to