Soy and tomatoes have their benefits, but when eaten together, ScienceDaily.com reports that they may help prevent prostate cancer.

After conducting a study on mice, researchers from University of Illinois found that eating soy and tomatoes separately lowered the risk of prostate cancer. However, eating both yielded the best results, significantly lowering the subjects’ risk of developing the disease to just 45 percent, even if they were genetically predisposed to it.

To protect your loved ones from the Big C, experts recommend having three to four servings of tomatoes or tomato products a week and one to two servings of soy products a day.

Study John Erdman also notes, "It's better to eat a whole tomato than to take a lycopene supplement. It's better to drink soy milk than to take soy isoflavones. When you eat whole foods, you expose yourself to the entire array of cancer-fighting, bioactive components in these foods."

(Photo of soy beans by Chrys Omori via Flickr Creative Commons; photo of tomatoes by La Grande Farmers' Market via Flickr Creative Commons)