Columbus [Ohio]: Young pigs’ gut microorganisms had been modified towards a greater favorable profile after weeks of consuming a weight loss program excessive in tomatoes, in keeping with a recent study.
The research was published in the journal Microbiology Spectrum. After looking at these consequences with a quick-time intervention, the studies team plans to develop similar studies in humans, searching out fitness-related links between tomatoes within the food regimen and modifications to the human gut microbiome – the network of microorganisms dwelling in the gastrointestinal tract.
“Tomatoes may impart benefits thru their modulation of the gut microbiome,” stated senior writer Jessica Cooperstone, assistant professor of horticulture and crop technological know-how and food technology and technology at The Ohio State University.
“Overall nutritional patterns had been associated with differences in microbiome composition, but meals-particular consequences haven’t been studied very much,” Cooperstone stated. “Ultimately, we’d like to discover in human beings the function of those specific microorganisms and how they might contribute to ability fitness effects.”
The tomatoes used in the study were advanced with the aid of Ohio State plant breeder, tomato geneticist, and co-author David Francis, and are generally found in canned tomato merchandise.
Ten recently weaned control pigs were fed a standard diet and 10 pigs were fed the standard diet fine-tuned so that 10 percent of the food consisted of a freeze-dried powder made from tomatoes.
Fiber, sugar, protein, fats, and calories were equal for both diets. The manipulated and examined pig populations lived one by one. Researchers strolling the study minimized their time spent with the pigs – a chain of precautions designed to ensure that any microbiome changes visible with the observed food plan could be attributed to chemical substances inside the tomatoes.
Microbial communities in the pigs’ guts were detected in fecal samples taken earlier than the study began, after which seven and 14 days after the weight-reduction plan was introduced.
The team used a method known as shotgun metagenomics to series all microbial DNA present inside the samples. Results showed essential changes within the microbiomes of pigs fed the tomato-heavy food plan – the variety of microbe species in their guts expanded, and the concentrations of forms of bacteria not unusual within the mammal microbiome shifted to a greater favorable profile.
This better ratio of the phyla Bacteroidota (formerly referred to as Bacteriodetes) compared to Bacillota (previously referred to as Firmicutes) gift inside the microbiome has been discovered to be linked with superb health outcomes. In contrast, different research has connected this ratio in the opposite, of better Bacillota compared to Bacteroidota, to weight problems.
Tomatoes account for about 22 percent of vegetable intake in Western diets. Previous studies have related the consumption of tomatoes to reduced chance for developing various conditions, including cardiovascular disorders and some cancers.
But tomatoes’ impact on the intestine microbiome continues to be a thriller, and Cooperstone stated these findings in pigs – whose gastrointestinal tract is extra similar to rodents’ to the human GI gadget – advocate it is an avenue well worth exploring.
“This was our first research on how tomato intake might affect the microbiome, and we have characterized which microbes are present and how their relative abundance has modified with this tomato intervention,” she stated.
“To sincerely recognize the mechanisms, we need to do more of this kind of paintings within the long term in people. We also want to recognize the complicated interplay – how does consuming those foods trade the composition of what microbes are present, and functionally, what does that do?
“A higher information could cause more evidence-primarily based nutritional tips for lengthy-time period fitness.”
