Anandh Velayutham Receives USDA Funding to Study How Purple Tomatoes May Support Heart Health
Anandh Babu Pon Velayutham, PhD, associate professor in the University of Utah Department of Nutrition and Integrative Physiology, has received USDA Agricultural Research Service funding to study how gut bacteria may influence the heart health benefits of a novel purple tomato.
The research will focus on a newly developed purple tomato that contains higher levels of polyphenols, natural compounds found in many fruits, vegetables and other plant foods. Velayutham and his team will examine how gut bacteria break down these compounds and create new substances, called metabolites, that may help protect the heart.
Understanding this process could help researchers learn more about how the foods people eat interact with the gut microbiome — the community of bacteria and other microorganisms that live in the digestive system — to support health.
Velayutham’s lab investigates how gut microbes process dietary phytochemicals, or naturally occurring compounds in plant foods, and how those interactions may contribute to health benefits. His research focuses on the connections among nutrition, the gut microbiome and chronic disease.