Eating Tomatoes Every Day Could Help Reduce Fatty Liver, Study Suggests

The study was an exploratory randomized controlled trial, which means researchers randomly assigned people to eat tomatoes or not and then compared the two groups. Over six weeks, liver fat edged down in everyone, but it dropped further in the tomato eaters. Measured on a specialized ultrasound scan, the tomato group's liver-fat reading fell from a median of about 306 to 272, while the tomato-free group slipped from roughly 295 to 286, and that gap between the groups was small but statistically meaningful, according to the trial published in Nutrients.

The researchers chose their words carefully. They concluded that "tomato consumption may reduce hepatic fat accumulation independently of major changes in body weight, total and abdominal adiposity" — in plain terms, the liver fat went down even though people weren't losing weight or shrinking their waistlines.

What makes the finding both interesting and limited is everything that stayed the same. Here is a quick snapshot of what the researchers measured, and what actually moved over the six weeks.

If this has you rethinking your grocery list, it helps to know which foods tend to help and which tend to work against you — our guide to fatty-liver foods to avoid, and the ones worth eating every day is a friendly place to start.

If the phrase "fatty liver" is new to you, here is the short version. Its formal name is now MASLD — metabolic dysfunction–associated steatotic liver disease — and it simply means fat has built up in the liver alongside at least one metabolic risk factor, such as extra weight, high blood pressure, elevated blood sugar, or unhealthy cholesterol. It is remarkably common: the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases estimates that roughly a quarter of U.S. adults have some form of it, and many have no idea, because it rarely causes symptoms in its early stages.

The reason food gets so much attention here is that, for now, lifestyle is the main lever we have. There is no single approved pill that melts liver fat away, so what you eat, how you move, and how much you weigh end up doing much of the heavy lifting.

If you are wondering how quickly things can actually turn around, we lay out realistic timelines in our explainer on how long it takes to reverse a fatty liver.

The finer details are worth knowing, because they shape how much the results apply to you. Researchers enrolled 79 adults who had MASLD and split them into two groups. One group ate 200 grams of raw tomatoes plus 50 grams of tomato sauce every single day; the other avoided tomatoes entirely. Everyone kept their usual routines otherwise, and all the tomato products came from a single producer to keep things consistent, as Medical News Today reported.

A few things about who took part matter down the line. The volunteers were adults aged 65 and younger, most of them men, and people with obesity — a body mass index over 30 — were left out, along with heavy drinkers. That adds up to a fairly narrow, relatively healthy slice of the much larger fatty-liver population, which is a thread the experts pick up shortly.

Daily food habits like this are having a real moment right now, and not all of them hold up to scrutiny — we sorted through the evidence in our roundup of foods worth eating almost every day, and why.

Independent specialists who weren't involved in the study were quick to add perspective. Randa Abdelmasih, MD, an endocrinologist and obesity specialist at the University of Texas Medical Branch, told Medical News Today that "the study showed improvement in liver fat but no significant improvements in liver stiffness, fibrosis scores, liver enzymes, insulin resistance, inflammatory markers, lipid profile, or body composition." Her bottom line was measured: "while the imaging findings are interesting, we cannot conclude that tomato consumption meaningfully alters disease progression or improves clinically relevant outcomes."

She also placed the finding in a bigger frame. For people carrying extra weight, she noted, "sustained weight loss of approximately 10% or more remains the intervention with the strongest evidence for improving" the more serious forms of liver disease — and tomatoes, while healthy, "should not distract from therapies that have demonstrated meaningful improvements."

Jonathan Jennings, MD, an internist with Medical Offices of Manhattan, raised a different flag: the study counted anyone with even a single metabolic risk factor and treated them all as equal. "Type 2 diabetes is more likely to lead to MASLD than high blood pressure but the study evaluates them as equal risk factors," he pointed out. He added a practical reminder, too — tomatoes can aggravate acid reflux for some people, and tomato-based dishes can be surprisingly calorie-dense — so it is worth talking with your own doctor before making any dramatic dietary change.

The researchers themselves would agree the study is a starting point, not a verdict. They describe it as exploratory and hypothesis-generating, pointing to the small group, the short six-week window, and the fact that they never measured lycopene — the red pigment widely thought to be tomatoes' active ingredient — in participants' blood. And because the trial blended raw tomatoes with cooked sauce, it can't say which form did the work, though it is worth knowing that lycopene is actually easier for your body to absorb from cooked tomatoes.

If you would rather build meals around foods with a longer track record, we gathered ten foods that genuinely support liver health in a separate guide.

So should you pile more tomatoes onto your plate? There is very little downside to enjoying them, and plenty of upside beyond the liver — they are a cornerstone of the Mediterranean way of eating and have long been linked to possible benefits for the heart and more.

In fact, tomatoes turn up on our list of everyday foods that help keep arteries clear, so a daily serving is rarely a wasted one.

The experts' core point is the one worth holding onto: a single food is not a treatment plan. The strongest evidence for improving fatty liver still points toward a broader Mediterranean-style pattern of eating and, for those who need it, gradual weight loss — the American Gastroenterological Association notes that shedding around 5% of body weight can begin to reduce liver fat, while 10% or more can help reverse scarring.

The most useful takeaway here isn't simply "eat tomatoes." It is that small, sustainable choices add up over time, and that the best plan is one you shape with a doctor who understands your full picture. If tomatoes make your meals brighter, more colorful, and more satisfying along the way, that is a real win — just not a prescription.