Women with the highest intake of tomato-based foods, rich sources of the antioxidant lycopene, had a reduced risk for CVD compared to women with low intake of those foods. The study showed a positive trend that the highest dietary levels of lycopene may also be protective against CVD. The present study is the first published report on the association of lycopene levels and cardiovascular disease exclusively in women.

The data, as reported by study leader Howard Sesso, of the Harvard School of Public Health, were derived from the ongoing Women's Health Study, which has been following 40,000 women for the past 11 years, who were free from cancer or CVD at the start of the study. After seven years of follow-up, the researchers recorded 719 cases of CVD. The present study analyzed the subjects' food frequency questionnaires for associations between intake of lycopene and tomato-based foods and the risk for CVD.

For those women who consumed seven servings or more of tomato-based foods like tomato sauce and pizza each week, there was a nearly 30 percent risk reduction in total cardiovascular disease compared to the group with intakes of less than 1 1/2 servings per week. Women who ate more than 10 servings per week had an even more pronounced reduction in risk (65 per cent) for specific CVD outcomes such as heart attack or stroke.

While not statistically significant, the strongest association of dietary lycopene with CVD protection was seen among those participants with a median dietary lycopene intake of 20.2 mg per day, who had a 33 percent reduction in risk of the disease when compared with women with the lowest dietary lycopene intake (3.3 mg/day).