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Getting the latest healthcare news for you
Getting the latest healthcare news for you
Daily tomatoes could be a simple dietary ally for liver health. A small trial found that adults with metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) who ate tomatoes daily saw significantly greater reductions in liver fat compared to those who avoided them. Notably, the benefit appeared independent of changes in body weight or other metabolic markers.
Daily tomatoes could be a simple dietary ally for liver health.
A small randomized trial published in Nutrients found that daily tomato consumption reduced liver fat in adults with metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD). Over 6 weeks, participants who ate 200g of raw tomatoes and 50g of tomato sauce daily showed significantly greater reductions in hepatic steatosis — measured via FibroScan — compared to those on a tomato-free diet.
Notably, the liver fat reduction occurred without meaningful changes in body weight, BMI, waist circumference, fat mass, liver stiffness, or metabolic markers like glucose, lipids, and liver enzymes. This suggests tomatoes may act through a distinct, possibly lycopene-related mechanism — though the study didn't measure circulating carotenoid levels to confirm this.
By the numbers:
Why it matters: MASLD affects a large portion of the global population and has limited dietary interventions with proven efficacy. While this trial is small and short-term, it opens the door to tomato-based nutritional strategies as a simple, accessible add-on to MASLD management.
