Good news for all men age 65 and older who like tomato sauce on their spaghetti: a new study confirms early research that your diet may be good for your health, or at least for your prostate gland.

Lycopene is a carotenoid, a form of vitamin A. It is found in large amounts in red and yellow vegetables, and especially in tomato sauce.

Because lycopene is a potent antioxidant (a substance that may reduce damage to cells in the body and prevent cancer), doctors have been trying to figure out whether having it in the diet can prevent cancer in humans.

Building on an earlier 1995 report, Edward Giovannucci, MD, and colleagues from Harvard Medical School and Harvard School of Public Health, tried to resolve the conflict between studies saying tomato products reduce the risk of prostate cancer in men, while other studies do not. They reported their findings in a recent issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute (Vol. 94, No. 5: 391-398).

The authors looked at the records of more than 50,000 men from health professions (other than physicians) who were between 40 and 75 years of age in 1986 and were willing to take part in a study of their health. They followed up with these men in mail surveys over a 12-year period.

The men answered questions about their diet and their health. The response from the men was very high — almost every man answered the questions. During that time, almost 2,500 of the men were diagnosed with prostate cancer.

When the doctors looked at the men over time, they found that there was a reduced risk of prostate cancer the more lycopene the men ate in their diets.

This was true for men who had a high tomato sauce intake, the best indication of the level of lycopene in the blood. If a man ate two or more servings of sauce a week, his risk of prostate cancer was reduced about 20%, compared to a man who ate less than one serving a month. However, almost all of this benefit was found in men over 65 years of age.

There were other good findings as well: for the heavy sauce eaters, the prostate cancer was more likely to be located only in the prostate gland. There was also a much lower chance the cancer had spread to other parts of the body at the time it was first found.

But the story isn’t really so clear. Other possible reasons may have made a difference in the results. For instance, the men might have eaten other fruits or vegetables that helped. But the researchers looked at the chances of something else causing the benefit. Even then, the only thing that stood out was lycopene from tomatoes.

So what should a man do? The authors say their study shows “that the intake of tomatoes and tomato products is associated with a decreased risk of prostate cancer.”

Based on their findings, they “suggest that increased consumption of tomato and tomato-based products may be prudent; such a recommendation is consistent with current health guidelines to increase fruit and vegetable consumption.” They also caution that just taking lycopene in a pill form still needs to be tested to find out if it works as well as the sauce.