Two weeks of consuming a weight-reduction plan heavy in tomatoes elevated the range of intestine microbes and altered intestine micro organism towards a extra favorable profile in younger pigs, researchers discovered.
After observing these outcomes with a short-term intervention, the analysis workforce plans to progress to related research in folks, in search of health-related hyperlinks between tomatoes within the weight-reduction plan and adjustments to the human intestine microbiome — the group of microorganisms dwelling within the gastrointestinal tract.
“It is doable that tomatoes impart advantages by means of their modulation of the intestine microbiome,” mentioned senior creator Jessica Cooperstone, assistant professor of horticulture and crop science and meals science and expertise at The Ohio State College.
“Total dietary patterns have been related to variations in microbiome composition, however food-specific results have not been studied very a lot,” Cooperstone mentioned. “Finally we might prefer to establish in people what the position is of those specific microorganisms and the way they could be contributing to potential well being outcomes.”
The analysis is printed within the journal Microbiology Spectrum.
The tomatoes used within the research had been developed by Ohio State plant breeder, tomato geneticist and co-author David Francis, and are the sort sometimes present in canned tomato merchandise.
Ten not too long ago weaned management pigs had been fed an ordinary weight-reduction plan and 10 pigs had been fed the usual weight-reduction plan fine-tuned in order that 10% of the meals consisted of a freeze-dried powder constructed from the tomatoes.
Fiber, sugar, protein, fats and energy had been an identical for each diets. The management and research pig populations lived individually, and researchers operating the research minimized their time spent with the pigs — a collection of precautions designed to make sure that any microbiome adjustments seen with the research weight-reduction plan may very well be attributed to chemical compounds within the tomatoes.
Microbial communities within the pigs’ guts had been detected in fecal samples taken earlier than the research started after which seven and 14 days after the weight-reduction plan was launched.
The workforce used a method referred to as shotgun metagenomics to sequence all microbial DNA current within the samples. Outcomes confirmed two essential adjustments within the microbiomes of pigs fed the tomato-heavy weight-reduction plan — the range of microbe species of their guts elevated, and the concentrations of two kinds of micro organism frequent within the mammal microbiome shifted to a extra favorable profile.
This greater ratio of the phyla Bacteroidota (previously referred to as Bacteriodetes) in comparison with Bacillota (previously referred to as Firmicutes) current within the microbiome has been discovered to be linked with optimistic well being outcomes, whereas different research have linked this ratio in reverse, of upper Bacillota in comparison with Bacteroidota, to weight problems.
Tomatoes account for about 22% of vegetable consumption in Western diets, and former analysis has related consumption of tomatoes with lowered threat for the event of assorted situations that embody heart problems and a few cancers.
However tomatoes’ impression on the intestine microbiome remains to be a thriller, and Cooperstone mentioned these findings in pigs — whose gastrointestinal tract is extra related than rodents’ to the human GI system — recommend it is an avenue price exploring.
“This was our first investigation as to how tomato consumption would possibly have an effect on the microbiome, and we have characterised which microbes are current, and the way their relative abundance has modified with this tomato intervention,” she mentioned.
“To essentially perceive the mechanisms, we have to do extra of this type of work in the long run in people. We additionally wish to perceive the advanced interaction — how does consuming these meals change the composition of what microbes are current, and functionally, what does that do?
“A greater understanding may result in extra evidence-based dietary suggestions for long-term well being.”
This work was supported by the U.S. Division of Agriculture, the Ohio Agricultural Analysis and Improvement Heart and the Meals for Well being initiative at Ohio State.
The research was led by Mallory Goggans, who obtained her grasp’s diploma in meals science and expertise from Ohio State in 2020.Further co-authors embody Emma Bilbrey, Cristian Quiroz-Moreno and Sheila Jacobi of Ohio State, and Jasna Kovac of Penn State College.
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