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The MITOS study is a project developed by our research group in collaboration with Hospital Cl铆nic de Barcelona and the August Pi i Sunyer Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBAPS). Its aim is to investigate how regular tomato consumption may influence brain and cognitive health through the microbiota鈥揼ut鈥揵rain axis.
To this end, a randomized crossover nutritional clinical trial was conducted in healthy adults aged 40 to 55 years. The study compared a period of daily consumption of tomato paste or concentrate with a control period based on a diet low in lycopene-rich foods, as lycopene is one of the main antioxidants found in tomatoes and watermelon. During the intervention, cognitive assessments, biomarker analyses, and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies were carried out to explore the potential mechanisms underlying the observed effects.
The first results of the project, published in the open-access journal Antioxidants, indicate that regular tomato consumption improves selective attention and associative memory. In addition, changes were observed in specific functional brain networks, as well as in biomarkers related to neuronal plasticity, such as brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF). These findings suggest a possible beneficial effect of tomato consumption on brain function and cognitive performance.
Link to the publication: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3921/15/5/644