A new study conducted in Spain has identified differences in brain scans and cognitive performance in individuals who consumed tomato paste regularly over three months.
elchi reports that in a clinical study led by nutrition expert Ricardo Lopez-Solis from the University of Barcelona, researchers investigated the effects of lycopene, a powerful antioxidant found in tomatoes, on brain function and neural connectivity.
The study, published in the journal Antioxidants, involved forty-two middle-aged adults.
Participants who consumed 35 grams of tomato paste daily for three months showed increased levels of selective attention and slight improvements in associative memory during cognitive tests.
Brain scans conducted on a small subgroup of 14 participants showed that increased lycopene levels led to significant changes in the connectivity of large-scale brain networks.
Lycopene caused changes in the blood and brain
In this crossover study, participants followed two dietary regimens: one involving daily tomato paste consumption and another with low lycopene intake, each lasting three months. A one-month washout period separated the two phases.
Blood tests conducted after the dietary interventions showed a noticeable increase in blood lycopene concentration during the tomato paste consumption period, as well as a trend toward increased levels of BDNF, a protein that supports brain development. Scans showed that tomato paste consumption leads to adjustments in resting-state connectivity in the brain’s frontoparietal and auditory networks.
Researchers suggest that these neural changes indicate that tomato consumption reduces excessive intra-network interactions in the brain, thereby increasing neural efficiency and adaptability.
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