Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Brief Communication
  • Published:

Diet with greater inflammatory potential is associated with higher prevalence of fatty liver among US adults

European Journal of Clinical Nutrition volume 73, pages 1653–1656 (2019)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

The prevalence of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is rising—caused, at least in part, by unhealthy lifestyles including poor dietary choices. We examined the link between the inflammatory potential of diet as measured by the Dietary Inflammatory Index (DII®) and liver function tests [summarised by the fatty liver index (FLI)]. Of 20,643 US NHANES participants, 48.7% were men and the mean age was 47.3 years. Significant associations were apparent between increasing DII score and prevalent fatty liver. Individuals in the fourth DII quartile had nearly a six-fold higher likelihood of fatty liver [odds ratio (OR) = 5.97, 95% confidence interval: 4.44–8.02] compared with those in the first quartile. Moderation analysis indicated a significant impact of adiposity on the link between FLI and DII score (p < 0.001). This study provides further evidence of an association between the inflammatory potential of diet and fatty liver.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

References

  1. Bedogni G, Nobili V, Tiribelli C. Epidemiology of fatty liver: an update. World J Gastroenterol. 2014;20:9050.

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  2. Musso G, Gambino R, De Michieli F, Cassader M, Rizzetto M, Durazzo M, et al. Dietary habits and their relations to insulin resistance and postprandial lipemia in nonalcoholic steatohepatitis. Hepatology. 2003;37:909–16.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Mazidi M, Gao HK, Vatanparast H, Kengne AP. Impact of the dietary fatty acid intake on C-reactive protein levels in US adults. Medicine. 2017;96:e5736.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Shivappa N, Steck SE, Hurley TG, Hussey JR, Hebert JR. Designing and developing a literature-derived, population-based dietary inflammatory index. Public Health Nutr. 2014;17:1689–96.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Ruhl C, Everhart J. Fatty liver indices in the multiethnic United States National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Aliment Pharmacol Ther. 2015;41:65–76.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Harrison S, Torgerson S, Hayashi P. Vitamin E and vitamin C treatment improves fibrosis in patients with nonalcoholic steatohepatitis. Altern Med Rev. 2004;9:100–1.

    Google Scholar 

  7. Di Minno MN, Russolillo A, Lupoli R, Ambrosino P, Di Minno A, Tarantino G. Omega-3 fatty acids for the treatment of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. World J Gastroenterol. 2012;18:5839–47.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Oddy WH, Herbison CE, Jacoby P, Ambrosini GL, O’sullivan TA, Ayonrinde OT, et al. The Western dietary pattern is prospectively associated with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease in adolescence. Am J Gastroenterol. 2013;108:778.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

Drs. Shivappa, Wirth, and Hébert were supported by grant no. R44DK103377 to CHI from the United States National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biology and Biological Engineering, Food and Nutrition Science, Chalmers University of Technology, SE-412 96, Gothenburg, Sweden

    Mohsen Mazidi

  2. Cancer Prevention and Control Program, University of South Carolina, 915 Greene Street, Suite 200, Columbia, SC, 29208, USA

    Nitin Shivappa, Michael D. Wirth & James R. Hebert

  3. Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of South Carolina, 915 Greene Street, Suite 400, Columbia, SC, 29208, USA

    Nitin Shivappa, Michael D. Wirth & James R. Hebert

  4. Connecting Health Innovations, LLC, 1417 Gregg Street, Columbia, SC, 29201, USA

    Nitin Shivappa, Michael D. Wirth & James R. Hebert

  5. College of Nursing, University of South Carolina, 1601 Greene Street, Columbia, SC, 29208, USA

    Michael D. Wirth

  6. Non-Communicable Disease Research Unit, South African Medical Research Council and University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa

    Andre Pascal Kengne

Authors
  1. Mohsen Mazidi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Nitin Shivappa
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Michael D. Wirth
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. James R. Hebert
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Andre Pascal Kengne
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Mohsen Mazidi.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

JRH owns controlling interest in Connecting Health Innovations LLC (CHI), a company planning to license the right to his invention of the dietary inflammatory index (DII) from the University of South Carolina in order to develop computer and smart phone applications for patient counseling and dietary intervention in clinical setti ngs. NS and MDW are employees of CHI. The remaining authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Mazidi, M., Shivappa, N., Wirth, M.D. et al. Diet with greater inflammatory potential is associated with higher prevalence of fatty liver among US adults. Eur J Clin Nutr 73, 1653–1656 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41430-018-0364-y

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41430-018-0364-y

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links