Text: Agência FAPESP* Some simple and quick-to-prepare dishes can bring health benefits, such as sofrito, a tomato stew usually prepared
with extra virgin olive oil, onion and garlic, which is the basis of Mediterranean cuisine. Research carried out with animals shows that this stew is capable of modifying metabolism, restricting weight gain.
Published in the magazine Antioxidants , the study was conducted by researchers from the International University of Catalonia, University of Barcelona and the Carlos III Health Institute, in Spain; the Edmund Mach Foundation and the University of Parma, in Italy; It's from Food Research Center FoRC ), a Research, Innovation and Dissemination Center ( CEPID ) from FAPESP based at the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences of the University of São Paulo (FCF-USP).
The research complements the results of the previous study, published in the journal Molecular Nutrition and Food Research , according to which rats prone to obesity that received the sautéed supplement in their diet, despite having ingested more food and energy, achieved the same weight gain as those that did not receive it. In the current study, compounds related to sofrito consumption and possible changes in organs that explain this effect were identified.
To obtain these results, multiple research approaches were used, such as analysis of the metabolite profile and gene expression in the blood plasma, liver and adipose tissue of the animals tested.
The researchers evaluated four groups of animals, half of which were normal weight animals (with the ideal weight) and the other prone to obesity. For a period of eight weeks, a group prone to obesity and a normoweight group received a diet with sofrito supplementation; other groups received the same diet, but without the stir-fry.
“Of the total amount of food, 2% was sofrito, a percentage that corresponds to the average intake of tomatoes by the Spanish population”, he says. José Fernando Rinaldi de Alvarenga first author of the article, whose study is the result of his doctoral thesis at the University of Barcelona.
Through metabolomics, a technique that analyzes various compounds present in organs and tissues that result from chemical reactions that occur in the body, and biostatistics tools, butanediol was identified in the liver of animals. “Our hypothesis to explain the effects of sofrito is the presence of this compound, detected only in animals that ingested the stew, which is described in the literature as a precursor of ketone bodies – substances that activate energy metabolism”, says Alvarenga.
A lipidomic investigation (the same type of analysis focused only on lipids) was also carried out to observe changes in adipose tissue, but no substantial changes were found.
“We observed that sofrito favors changes that lead to lipid oxidation, but we did not find significant changes in composition”, says Alvarenga.
It was also seen that the animals that ate the stew had more diglycerides, energy reserves formed by two fat molecules, while the animals that did not receive the supplementation had more triglycerides, energy reserves formed by three fat molecules. “This could indicate a metabolic change that led to the breakdown of these molecules, which could also favor weight loss,” adds the researcher.
Despite being an important ally of a healthy diet, Alvarenga highlights that sofrito is not a magic formula for weight loss.
The article Integrated Metabolomics, Lipidomics, and Genomics Reveal the Presence of a New Biomarker, Butanediol Glucuronide, Associated with the Activation of Liver Ketogenesis and Lipid Oxidation by Tomato-Based Sofrito in Obese Rats can be read at: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3921/11/11/2165
* With information from FoRC, a FAPESP Research, Innovation and Dissemination Center