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Coffee but not green tea consumption is associated with prevalence and severity of hepatic steatosis: the impact on leptin level

European Journal of Clinical Nutrition volume 69, pages 1023–1027 (2015)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Background/Objectives:

Most of the studies that have investigated the association between coffee consumption and hepatic steatosis have been experimental and small-scale clinical studies. As a result, epidemiological studies are scarce. To clear the association, we conducted a cross-sectional study and investigated the effects of coffee consumption with those of green tea consumption.

Subjects/Methods:

We analyzed 1024 Japanese male workers. The diagnosis of hepatic steatosis was based on ultrasonography. We divided coffee and green tea consumption into the following three categories: non-drinker; 1–2 cups/day and ⩾3 cups/day. To investigate the association between hepatic steatosis and coffee or green tea consumption, we calculated the odds ratio (OR) and adjusted the means of leptin levels on each severity of hepatic steatosis.

Results:

A total of 265 of our subjects (25.9%) were diagnosed with hepatic steatosis. The ORs of the group of subjects who drank >3 cups of coffee/day was significantly lower compared with that of the noncoffee drinker group (OR 0.59, 95% confidence intervals 0.38–0.90, P=0.03). Although there was a significant difference between coffee consumption and leptin level only in the asymptomatic group, we found a decreasing trend in the asymptomatic and moderate–severe hepatic steatosis group. We did not find the same relationships in green tea consumption.

Conclusions:

Although we did not find an association between hepatic steatosis and green tea consumption, coffee may have beneficial effects on hepatic steatosis. In addition, we produced one possible hypothesis that coffee consumption negatively associates with leptin levels in hepatic steatosis.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by Grant of The Clinical Research Promotion Foundation (2010, 2014). We thank public health nurse Yuko Shibata for her invaluable help.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Preventive Medicine and Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, Fukuoka University, Fukuoka, Japan

    T Imatoh

  2. Division of Preventive Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, Tenjin Clinic, Fukuoka, Japan

    S Kamimura

  3. Saitama City Institute of Health Science and Research, Saitama, Japan

    M Miyazaki

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  1. T Imatoh
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  2. S Kamimura
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  3. M Miyazaki
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Correspondence to T Imatoh.

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Imatoh, T., Kamimura, S. & Miyazaki, M. Coffee but not green tea consumption is associated with prevalence and severity of hepatic steatosis: the impact on leptin level. Eur J Clin Nutr 69, 1023–1027 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/ejcn.2015.23

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