COLUMBUS, Ohio, July 23 (Nationwide Times) — A specially formulated tomato-soy drink may lower some inflammation-related proteins in adults with obesity, according to Ohio State researchers. The finding is promising, but it does not mean ordinary tomato juice has the same effect, and it does not show that the drink prevents disease.
What did the study test?
The study, published in Molecular Nutrition & Food Research and indexed in PubMed, involved 12 adults with obesity. Participants drank either the tomato-soy beverage or a low-carotenoid tomato juice control for four weeks. They had two 6-ounce servings a day, and the trial used a crossover design with a washout period between interventions.
The drink was not a standard grocery-store tomato juice. The researchers used tomatoes bred to contain high levels of lycopene and fortified the beverage with soy isoflavones.
What changed?
After the tomato-soy drink, the study reported significant drops in three proteins tied to inflammation: IL-5, IL-12p70 and GM-CSF. Another marker, TNF-alpha, trended downward but did not reach conventional statistical significance.
The study also found plasma lycopene rose 2.48-fold after the tomato-soy beverage. In addition, both drinks produced some similar changes in the urine metabolome, which suggests that compounds in tomatoes other than lycopene may also be involved.
Why do those proteins matter?
IL-5, IL-12p70 and GM-CSF are cytokines, a class of proteins that help immune cells communicate. Researchers often measure them as signs of inflammation. Chronic inflammation has been linked to a range of health problems, but this study did not measure long-term health outcomes. It measured biomarkers, not whether people felt better or avoided illness.
What does this mean for daily choices?
The main takeaway is that the exact recipe mattered. The beverage tested in the study was specially designed and is not the same as regular tomato juice. The results do not support a broad claim that any tomato drink will lower inflammation in the same way.
The study was also small and short, so it cannot tell doctors or dietitians whether the drink has lasting benefits. That makes the research interesting, but still preliminary.
Has tomato juice been studied before?
Yes. A separate randomized study published in 2013 in PubMed looked at tomato juice in overweight or obese female students at Tehran University of Medical Sciences. That study reported lower levels of some inflammatory markers, including IL-8 and TNF-alpha in the intervention group, and a drop in IL-6 in obese participants. It is a different trial in a different group, but it adds to the idea that tomatoes and related compounds may affect inflammation markers.
For now, Ohio State’s study adds one more piece to a much larger question: whether specific foods, or specific versions of foods, can meaningfully change inflammation in people. The answer appears to depend on the exact formula, the size of the study and what outcome is being measured.
