Professor Willett explains that we can't be 100% sure if the lycopene from a supplement is really going to be the same as eating tomatoes, which are high in lycopene.

Walter Willett is the Fredrick John Stare Professor of Epidemiology and Nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health. HIs research focuses on how dietary factors may contribute to and cause health-related conditions. He has written a book entitled Eat, Drink and Be Happy, which summarizes some of the results from his research. “We can't be 100% sure if the lycopene from a supplement is really going to be the same as eating tomatoes, which are high in lycopene. First of all, what we see in our studies is that people who eat more tomatoes and tomato products have had a lower risk of prostate cancer. And it's a hypothesis that lycopene is the active agent but it's actually possible that it's something else in tomatoes or the combination of several factors in tomatoes that's related to lower risk of prostate cancer. And it will really require a separate study giving supplements of lycopene for many years to see if that specifically was the active factor that was related to lower risk of prostate cancer and that study hasn't been done yet.”

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