Eating tomatoes every day may help shrink fat buildup in the liver, and the effect showed up without any weight loss, according to a small randomized controlled trial published in Nutrients in August 2026.
The Italian POMOSANO study assigned 79 adults with metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD), the new name for non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, to eat either 200 grams of raw tomatoes and 50 grams of tomato sauce daily for six weeks, or to follow a tomato-free diet.
Everyone was aged 18 to 65 and had a body mass index at or below 30.
What the trial actually measured
Liver fat was gauged with the FibroScan controlled attenuation parameter (CAP), an ultrasound-based score that estimates fatty infiltration without a biopsy or MRI. The tomato group's CAP fell by a median of 35 dB/m, compared with 18 dB/m in controls, and the adjusted between-group difference was statistically significant.
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The finding held up even though body weight, BMI, waist circumference and total body fat stayed largely stable across the six weeks.
That matters because weight loss is the standard recommendation for fatty liver, and the trial suggests a food change alone can nudge the marker in the right direction.
Why tomatoes may help
Tomatoes are rich in carotenoids, particularly lycopene, along with other antioxidant and anti-inflammatory plant compounds. Cooked and processed tomato products tend to deliver more absorbable lycopene than raw ones, which is why the trial paired fresh tomatoes with a daily portion of sauce.
The researchers were careful about what the study does not show. Blood levels of lycopene and other carotenoids were not measured, so it is not clear which compound, or combination, drove the effect.
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Liver stiffness and the FIB-4 fibrosis score did not improve, and there were no meaningful changes in cholesterol, liver enzymes or insulin markers.
What outside doctors make of it
Randa Abdelmasih, an endocrinologist and obesity specialist at the University of Texas Medical Branch, told Medical News Today that the trial enrolled a narrow slice of patients and that the imaging change did not carry through to other clinical markers.
She noted that most patients seen in practice have obesity, type 2 diabetes or more advanced metabolic disease, so how well the results generalize is limited.
Jonathan Jennings, a board-certified internist with Medical Offices of Manhattan, cautioned that tomatoes are not for everyone. He said tomato-based foods can be a trigger for people with gastroesophageal reflux disease and are calorically dense enough that heavy portions may worsen insulin resistance in some individuals.
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What it means on your plate
MASLD is quietly common. Roughly one in three adults worldwide now has some degree of fatty liver, and the US prevalence has been estimated at about 38 percent, a figure projected to keep climbing. Most people with it feel nothing until routine bloodwork or a scan flags a problem.
The trial does not turn tomatoes into a treatment. It is a 79-person, six-week study, and the authors describe their own work as exploratory.
But it adds tomatoes to the short list of everyday foods tied to liver health, and it does so with the reassuring detail that the benefit did not require a diet or a drop in weight. Anyone already diagnosed with fatty liver should still talk to their doctor before overhauling meals or leaning heavily on one food group.
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This article is made and published by Jesper Bengtson, who may have used AI in the preparation.