Can tomatoes prevent alcohol disasters?

We know that consuming alcohol in a moderate way can be beneficial for long-term health. And of course we know that excessive alcohol consumption certainly isn’t. Alcohol is part of our daily social development and ironically it is one of the most harmful substances for the body. While in the long term it can be good for some things. Even moderate intake causes damage to brain cells.

But could tomatoes help with this?

Tomatoes are not going to save our patients (or us) from the classic headache, dizziness, and bloodshot eyes of the morning after a night out. But research shows that tomatoes can protect your brain and liver from the ravages of alcohol. Dr. Xiang-Dong Wang, director of the Cancer Biology and Nutrition Laboratory at Tufts University in Boston, MA, and his team tested the effect of tomatoes on rats exposed to certain high doses of alcohol. The experiments used the equivalent of 100 grams of alcohol consumption. Which is approximately 7 alcoholic drinks, daily for 4 weeks. This mimics chronic, excessive alcohol consumption in humans. While at the same time three different tomato products were tested:

• tomato powder, which is nutritionally equivalent to whole tomato
• tomato extract, which contains only fat-soluble components
• purified lycopene, which is the red pigment that gives tomatoes their color and a known antioxidant Enzymes in the liver break down the alcohol we drink, causing damage to liver cells. Tomato powder (but not the extract or purified lycopene) reduced the damaging effects of alcohol in more than 90 percent of the rats. These results are consistent with previous findings that lycopene alone does not prevent liver damage and point to whole tomatoes as the key. Interestingly, purified ellycopene DID protect brain cells. Ross Grant, clinical associate professor of medicine at the University of Sydney in Australia, and his research team showed that the equivalent of two standard alcoholic drinks causes damage to brain cells in just 15 minutes. Treating these cells with lycopene 3.5 hours before exposing them to alcohol significantly reduced the damage. The best way to avoid the harmful effects of alcohol is obviously to abstain from drinking it. However, if you want to enjoy a drink or two (without going overboard), a daily dose of tomatoes certainly seems to help protect the brain and liver of our patients… And why not? of us too.