Inflammation is a natural part of the body’s defense system. When a person gets injured or develops an infection, the immune system creates inflammation to help protect the body and support healing.
However, when inflammation continues for months or years, it can become harmful.
This long-lasting inflammation has been linked to obesity, diabetes, heart disease, cancer, arthritis, and many other chronic health problems.
Because of this, scientists have been searching for safe and practical ways to reduce chronic inflammation. While medications can help in some situations, researchers are also interested in whether everyday foods might influence inflammation and improve health.
A new study from researchers at The Ohio State University suggests that a specially designed tomato-soy juice could be one such option. The findings were published in the journal Molecular Nutrition & Food Research and showed that drinking the juice for only four weeks reduced several important markers of inflammation in adults with obesity.
The research focused on two natural plant compounds. The first was lycopene, the pigment that gives tomatoes their bright red color. Lycopene belongs to a family of compounds called carotenoids, which are found in many fruits and vegetables.
Previous studies have suggested that lycopene may help protect cells from damage caused by unstable molecules known as free radicals.
The second group of compounds was soy isoflavones. These naturally occur in soybeans and soy products. Scientists have been interested in soy isoflavones because they may affect inflammation, metabolism, and hormone-related processes in the body.
Years ago, researchers at Ohio State developed a tomato-soy beverage containing high levels of both lycopene and soy isoflavones. The tomatoes used to make the juice were specially bred to contain extra lycopene, and the drink was enriched with soy compounds.
Earlier studies suggested that diets rich in tomatoes and soy might be linked to a lower risk of certain diseases, including prostate cancer. However, researchers wanted stronger evidence from carefully controlled clinical trials.
To investigate, the team recruited 12 healthy adults with obesity. Obesity is often associated with chronic low-grade inflammation, making it a useful group for studying anti-inflammatory interventions.
Participants drank two six-ounce cans of the tomato-soy juice every day for four weeks. After a washout period, they switched to a control tomato juice that contained very low levels of carotenoids and did not include the added soy compounds.
The researchers collected blood samples before and after each phase of the study. They measured substances called cytokines, which are proteins produced by the immune system that help regulate inflammation.
The results were encouraging. Only the tomato-soy juice produced significant reductions in three inflammatory proteins known as IL-5, IL-12p70, and GM-CSF. Another inflammatory marker, TNF-alpha, also decreased, although the change was not large enough to meet the statistical threshold used by the researchers.
The team also analyzed urine samples to see how the beverage affected metabolism. They found measurable changes in several metabolites, indicating that the drink was influencing biological processes throughout the body.
Some of these changes were seen after drinking both juices, suggesting that tomatoes alone may offer health benefits. However, the most distinctive changes were linked to the soy isoflavones in the special tomato-soy beverage.
The findings are particularly interesting because they demonstrate that food can produce measurable biological effects in a relatively short period of time. Rather than simply relying on laboratory experiments, the researchers were able to observe changes directly in human participants.
The team is now expanding its work into other health conditions. They have received funding to study whether the same beverage can help people with pancreatitis, a painful disease involving inflammation of the pancreas. Current treatment options for chronic pancreatitis are limited, so new approaches are urgently needed.
This study provides promising evidence that certain combinations of plant-based foods may help reduce inflammation. A major strength is that it was a controlled human clinical trial rather than an observational study. However, the study included only 12 participants, making it relatively small.
Larger studies will be needed to confirm the findings and determine whether the reductions in inflammatory markers lead to meaningful long-term health benefits. Still, the results support the growing idea that specific foods may one day play an important role alongside traditional medical treatments in managing chronic inflammation.
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