Study: Tomatoes may help ward off strokes

Eating tomatoes and tomato-based foods appears to be associated with a lower risk of stroke, a new study indicates.

Tomatoes are rich in the antioxidant lycopene. Researchers checked blood levels of lycopene in more than 1,000 Finnish men, aged 46 to 65 at the start of the study, and followed them for an average of 12 years. Men with the highest lycopene levels were 55 percent less likely to have a stroke than those with the lowest levels of the antioxidant. Men with the highest lycopene levels were 59 percent less likely to have a stroke caused by blood clots than those with the lowest levels.