It may not be the most obvious of health foods, but pizza could be good for you, research suggests.
Scientists have found that oregano, a seasoning commonly used in pizza and other Italian food, has the potential to become a powerful weapon against prostate cancer.
A medicine inspired by it could have fewer side-effects than existing treatments, which can cause problems from incontinence to impotence.
Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in British men, affecting 37,000 a year and killing more than 10,000.
Researchers from Long Island University, New York, studied carvacrol, a chemical in oregano. Added to prostate cancer cells in the lab, it rapidly wiped them out.
Left for four days, almost all the cells were killed, the Experimental Biology conference in San Diego heard.
Tests showed it triggered the cells to kill themselves.
The oregano chemical could now be used itself as a treatment against cancer, or as the blueprint for an even more powerful drug.
Experts warned, though, that when oregano is eaten, it could be that carvacrol is digested before it can do any good.
Researcher Supriya Bavadekar, a pharmacologist, said: ‘Some researchers have previously shown that eating pizza may cut down cancer risk.
‘This effect has been mostly attributed to lycopene, a substance found in tomato sauce, but we now feel that even the oregano seasoning may play role.’
Lycopene, the pigment that gives tomatoes their read colour is credited with a host of health benefits, including warding off cancer and cutting the risk of heart disease.
