High red meat intake increases risk for NAFLD
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Among a population with low consumption of red meat, those who consumed a high amount of red meat had a high chance for nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, according to a study published in the American Journal of Gastroenterology.
“[We] found that even low consumption of red meat and organ meat, but not white meat, is associated with increase odds of NAFLD,” Maryam Hashemian, MD, PhD, Digestive Oncology Research Center, Digestive Diseases Research Institute, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, in Iran, and colleagues wrote. “This underlines the importance of dietary composition, in addition to calorie restriction and weight loss, in preventing fatty liver disease. We think that the results of our study can inform different dietary recommendations, such as American Dietary Guidelines, since in the absence of data on less studied conditions such as NAFLD, most of these recommendations are based on more extensively studied diet-related chronic diseases, including cardiovascular disease and diabetes. We also believe that because of the high and increasing prevalence of NAFLD across the globe, more research on the role of diet on NAFLD prevention is needed in other ethnically diverse populations with different dietary patterns.”
Hashemian and colleagues assessed the correlation between meat consumption and risk of NAFLD in 50,045 patients aged 40 to 75 years in Iran from the Golestan Cohort Study.
“Dietary information was collected using a 116-item semiquantitative food frequency questionnaire at baseline (2004-2008),” the authors wrote. “A random sample of 1,612 cohort members participated in a liver-focused study in 2011. NAFLD was ascertained through ultrasound.”
Based on the Golestan Cohort Study, total meat consumption and total white meat consumption were stratified into quartiles. The first quartile served as the referent group.
Results showed the median intake of total red meat was 17. Hashemian and colleagues noted the total white meat intake was 53 g per day. There were 505 patients diagnosed with NAFLD during follow-up. Of these, 124 had elevated alanine transaminase.
According to researchers, high total red meat consumption (ORQ4 vs. Q1 = 1.59, 95% CI = 1.06-2.38) and organ meat consumption ORQ4 vs. Q1 = 1.70, 95% CI = 1.19-2.44) correlated with NAFLD. No significant correlates with NAFLD were noted with total white meat, chicken or fish consumption.
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