COLUMBUS, Ohio, July 23 (Nationwide Times) — A new Ohio State study suggests a specially formulated tomato-soy drink lowered several inflammation-related proteins in adults with obesity after four weeks. The practical takeaway is narrower: the beverage was not ordinary tomato juice, and the study was too small to show that a store-bought juice works the same way or improves long-term health.
What did the study test?
The study, published in Molecular Nutrition & Food Research and indexed in PubMed, enrolled 12 adults with obesity. In a crossover design, participants drank two 6-ounce servings a day of either the tomato-soy beverage or a low-carotenoid tomato juice control for four weeks, then had a washout period before switching.
The test drink used tomatoes bred for high lycopene content and was fortified with soy isoflavones, according to the study abstract.
What changed in the blood?
After the tomato-soy drink, the study found significant decreases in three proteins tied to inflammation: IL-5, IL-12p70 and GM-CSF. Another marker, TNF-alpha, trended downward but did not meet the usual cutoff for statistical significance.
The study also found that plasma lycopene rose 2.48-fold, showing that the body absorbed more of the tomato pigment from the fortified drink.
Why does this matter?
Inflammation is part of the immune system’s response to injury or infection. When it stays active over time, it can be linked with chronic disease. Researchers often measure cytokines, which are proteins that help immune cells communicate, to see whether a food or diet changes the body’s inflammatory state.
This study did not test whether the drink prevented disease or improved symptoms. It measured biomarkers, not long-term health outcomes.
Did the results point to tomatoes, lycopene, or both?
The researchers also saw shared changes in urine metabolites after both interventions. That pattern suggests some effects may have come from the tomato itself, not only from lycopene, the study said.
That does not mean any tomato product will have the same effect. It does suggest the whole food, and not just one nutrient, may matter.
How strong is the evidence?
The evidence is early. The study included only 12 adults and lasted four weeks. That is enough to look for a signal, but not enough to make broad dietary recommendations.
An earlier randomized study published in 2013 at Tehran University of Medical Sciences found that tomato juice lowered some inflammatory markers in overweight or obese female students. In that trial, IL-8 and TNF-alpha fell in the intervention group, and IL-6 decreased in obese participants. Because it involved a different group and a different drink, it should not be treated as proof of the same result here.
For now, the Ohio State study is best read as another clue that tomatoes and related compounds may affect inflammation. It is not a reason to treat tomato juice as medicine.
