Rats and pigs notwithstanding, what happens when humans consume tomato sauce?
 
In a clinical study¹², 25 young adults consumed a high-fat meal, which causes oxidative stress, on two separate occasions, once with the addition of processed tomato product and once with non-tomato alternative. Tomato significantly reduced LDL oxidation and rise in IL-6 occurring after the high-fat meal. This suggests that consuming tomato products with a meal lowers the oxidative stress and inflammatory response brought on by unhealthy dietary fats and may help protect against cardiovascular disease.
 
In addition to protecting against the endothelial damage linked to obesity, standardized tomato extract also appears to lower blood pressure in humans with hypertension, based on a study¹³ of 65 patients with arterial hypertension and high cardiovascular risk. Patients were randomly assigned to take aspirin, which has been shown to lower high blood pressure, or standardized tomato extract.
 
After 4 weeks of treatment, blood pressure was significantly lower in those who received tomato extract than in those given aspirin. When added to usual blood pressure medications, tomato extract improved blood pressure by about an additional 3% to 7%. Patients with hypertension and high total cardiovascular risk therefore appear to have better blood pressure control when adding tomato extract to their diet.¹³