Studies Suggest Ketchup Can Reduce Risk Of Cancer

Aug 28, 2018

From an early age, whether you were using it to top your burger, to dip your fries in, or to garnish a hot dog, you’ve probably always used ketchup as one of your favorite condiments. Perhaps you slowed down your intake during adulthood because you were worried about the negative impacts it can have on your health. However, it might be safe to take up your old ketchup habits for good.

Researchers from the University Politecnica de Valencia, located in Spain, are now finding out that tomatoes that are cooked, pasta sauces, and even our favorite condiment, ketchup, can help reduce your overall risk of cancer.

Their research and findings are indicating that when tomatoes are cooked, they actually have entirely new and more beneficial health properties than when they are served raw. Cooking tomatoes cause a chemical named lycopene to release its beneficial probiotic impacts, which means that consuming it will result in higher levels of healthy types of bacteria in your stomach. The more surprising conclusions from the study were found when researchers looked into the link between consuming tomato sauces that were cooked and gastric cancer.

The scientists found that the extracts from the tomatoes have the ability to reduce the cancer cell’s ability to grow and spread, which eventually leads to the death of all of the cells. One of the authors of the study is a cancer specialist named Daniela Barone, who maintains that lycopene is not necessarily the main cause of this phenomenon, but rather, cooked tomatoes as a whole are the beneficial components. This new study can potentially open up the conversation and lead to new research on how to prevent stomach cancer through unusual and unconventional manners.

Because National Geographic states that 97% of United States residents own ketchup in their kitchens, it’s surprising to most that ketchup isn’t strictly from America. The roots of ketchup actually come from an entirely different place. British Explorers traveling between China and Vietnam in the eighteenth century discovered a fish sauce that they enjoyed. When they returned from their travels, they tried to recreate this sauce on their own but came up with a mixture of mushrooms, walnuts, oysters and other fish.

Later on, in 1812, a man named James Mease, who was a scientist as well as a horticulturalist, created a sauce with tomatoes. He referred to tomatoes as love apples. When the 1860’s hit, Dr. Harvey Washington Wiley attempted to create a product with Henry J. Heinz that lacked detrimental preservatives like coal tar. Heinz developed a new type of ketchup for United States consumers and included things like red tomatoes and vinegar in order to make the product last. Recipes that used to be in cookbooks for ketchup were slowly eased out, as everyone knew that they could not compare to Heinz iconic recipe.

It’s clear that ketchup has had a long and important history in the United States. Whether you hate it or love it, these new findings are proving that it might not be as bad for us as we previously thought. With this new research, will you be adding more ketchup and cooked tomatoes into your diet? Let us know down below!

Our content is created to the best of our knowledge, yet it is of general nature and cannot in any way substitute an individual consultation with your doctor. Your health is important to us!