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Tomatoes improve the health

22 percent of the veggies consumed in Western diets are tomatoes. Tomato consumption has been associated in the past to a lower chance of acquiring a number of illnesses, including heart disease and several malignancies. It has not yet been determined how tomatoes affect the community of microbes that inhabit the digestive tract, called the gut microbiome.

Currently, a research team lead by the Ohio State University (OSU) has discovered that feeding young pigs a diet high in tomatoes for two weeks boosted the diversity of their gut microorganisms and changed their gut bacteria to have a more favourable profile. To determine whether tomato consumption and alterations to the human gut microbiome have any health-related implications, these findings could also be studied in humans.

According to Jessica Cooperstone, an assistant professor of horticulture and crop science at Ohio State University and the study's principal author, tomatoes may have health benefits because they alter the gut flora. Although dietary trends in general have been linked to variations in microbiome composition, less is known about the effects of individual foods. In the end, we hope to determine in people how these specific microbes function and how they can affect prospective health effects.

Ten newly weaned piglets were fed a conventional meal, and the other ten were fed a standard diet that had been tweaked so that 10% of the food was a freeze-dried tomato powder. The amounts of fibre, sugar, protein, fat, and calories were the same in both diets.

In order to be sure that any changes in the pigs' microbiomes could be entirely attributable to the chemical constituents in the tomatoes, the control and study pig populations were kept apart, and the researchers spent as little time with the pigs as possible. Samples of faeces were taken prior to the trial as well as seven and 14 days following the introduction of the diet to collect microbial populations.

The researchers analysed all of the microbial DNA from the samples using a technique known as "shotgun metagenomics." The results of the investigation showed two significant changes in the microbiomes of pigs fed the tomato-heavy diet: an increase in the variety of microbes in their intestines and a change in the profile of two types of bacteria that are common in the mammal microbiome. More particular, it has been discovered that more favourable health outcomes are associated with phyla Bacteroidota having a larger ratio than phyla Bacillota.

The microorganisms that are there have been discovered, together with how this tomato intervention has changed their relative abundance. According to Cooperstone, this was our initial investigation into how consuming tomatoes might impact the microbiome.

If we want to fully understand the mechanics, more of this kind of lengthy research in humans is required. We also want to understand how consuming these foods modifies the makeup of the existing bacteria and what that achieves in terms of functionality. A greater understanding might lead to more scientifically supported dietary recommendations for long-term health, she suggested.

The study was written up in the journal Microbiology Spectrum.