Track the health benefits of tomatoes for gut microbiome

The researchers found that the two-week tomato diet increased the diversity of gut microbes in piglets and changed gut bacteria in a more favorable direction
.

After looking at the results of these short-term interventions, the research team plans to conduct similar studies in humans, looking for health-related links
between tomatoes in the diet and changes in the human gut microbiota, the community of microbes that live in the gastrointestinal tract.

Senior author Jessica Cooperstone, assistant professor of horticulture, crop science, food science and technology at Ohio State University, said, "Tomatoes may be beneficial by regulating the
gut microbiota.
"

"Overall dietary patterns are associated with differences in microbiome composition, but not much research has been done
on the effects of specific foods," Cooperstone said.
"Ultimately, we want to determine what role these specific microbes play in humans and how they contribute to
potential health outcomes.
"

The study was published in
the journal Microbiology Spectrum.

The tomato used in the study was developed by David Francis, a plant breeder, tomato geneticist and co-author at Ohio State University, and is the kind
commonly found in canned tomato products.

Ten freshly weaned control pigs were fed a standard diet, and another 10 pigs were fed a fine-tuned standard diet, so that 10% of the food consisted of
lyophilized powder made from tomatoes.

Fiber, sugar, protein, fat, and calories are the same
in both diets.
The control group and the study pigs lived separately, and the researchers conducting the study minimized the time they spent with the pigs — a series of precautions designed to ensure that any microbiome changes seen in the study's diet could be attributed to the compounds in the
tomatoes.

Before the study began, and on days 7 and 14 after the introduction of this diet, the researchers detected microbial communities
in the pig's gut in fecal samples, respectively.

The team used a technique called shotgun metagenomics to sequence
all the microbial DNA present in the sample.
The results showed that two major changes occurred in the microbial communities of tomato-fed pigs – increased diversity of microbial species in the gut and shifting the concentration of two bacteria commonly found in mammalian microbiome communities to a more favorable profile
.

The study found that in the microbiome, a higher ratio of Phylum Bacteroides (formerly known as the Phylum Bacteroides) to Phylum Bacterium (formerly known as the Firmicutes phylum) was associated with positive health outcomes, while other studies have linked this ratio to obesity
, i.
e.
, higher than Bacteroides phylum associated with obesity.

In the Western diet, tomatoes account for about 22%
of vegetable intake.
Previous studies have shown that tomato consumption can reduce the risk of various diseases, including cardiovascular disease and some cancers
.

But the effect of tomatoes on the gut microbiota remains a mystery, and Cooperstone said the findings in pigs — whose gastrointestinal tract is more similar to the human gastrointestinal system than rodents — suggest a pathway
worth exploring.

"This is the first time we've investigated how tomato consumption might affect the microbiome, and we've described which microbes are present and how their relative abundance changes
after the tomato intervention," she said.

"To truly understand these mechanisms, we need to do more of this kind of long-term work
on humans.
" We also wanted to understand the complex interactions – how eating these foods changes the composition of existing microbes, and functionally, what does this do?

"A better understanding could lead to more evidence-based dietary recommendations
for long-term health.
"

Short-Term Tomato Consumption Alters the Pig Gut Microbiome toward a More Favorable Profile