Green tomatoes could help you bulk up; new research suggests the unlikely food can promote muscle growth.
Researchers found a compound in green tomatoes that can help muscles grow and even protect against atrophy, a University of Iowa Health Care news release reported.
"Muscle atrophy causes many problems for people, their families, and the health care system in general," Christopher Adams, M.D., Ph.D., UI associate professor of internal medicine and molecular physiology and biophysics, said in the news release. "However, we lack an effective way to prevent or treat it. Exercise certainly helps, but it's not enough and not very possible for many people who are ill or injured."
The researchers identified the compound, dubbed tomatidine, and looked at how it affected patients' muscles. The team found tomatidine can change gene expression that are opposite of those that work within the muscle cells and cause atrophy.
"That result was important because we are looking for something that can help people," Adams said.
The team added tomatidine to mice's diet to see if it improved their muscle health. The mice that were given tomatidine "grew bigger muscles, became stronger and could exercise longer," the news release reported. They also were determined to have a lower risk of atrophy.
The mice's weight did not change despite gaining muscles, suggesting the compound could also aid in weight loss.
"Green tomatoes are safe to eat in moderation. But we don't know how many green tomatoes a person would need to eat to get a dose of tomatidine similar to what we gave the mice. We also don't know if such a dose of tomatidine will be safe for people, or if it will have the same effect in people as it does in mice," Adams said. "We are working hard to answer these questions, hoping to find relatively simple ways that people can maintain muscle mass and function, or if necessary, regain it."
In the past the researchers also found a compound that promotes muscle growth called ursolic acid in apple peels.
"Tomatidine is significantly more potent than ursolic acid and appears to have a different mechanism of action. This is a step in the right direction," Adams said. "We are now very interested in the possibility that several food-based natural compounds such as tomatidine and ursolic acid might someday be combined into science-based supplements, or even simply incorporated into everyday foods to make them healthier."
