NuSI launches study of diets in children with NAFLD

The Nutrition Science Initiative has launched a randomized, controlled clinical trial to help determine whether removing added sugars from the diets of children can stop or reverse nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, according to a press release.

The trial will include 40 children with NAFLD assigned to either an intervention group or a habitual diet control group. The study team, which includes Miriam Vos, MD, MSPH, associate professor of pediatrics at Emory University School of Medicine and a pediatric hepatologist at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, and Jeffrey Schwimmer, MD, professor of clinical pediatrics at University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and director of the Weight and Wellness Center and the Fatty Liver Clinic at Rady Children's Hospital-San Diego, will then visit the families' homes of the children to learn about their eating habits.

Jeffrey Schwimmer

In the intervention group, the families and patients will be provided with a similar version of their current diet, except the fact that it will be low in free sugars. “The effect of this dietary change, over a period of 8 weeks, will be assessed using advanced MRI testing developed at UC San Diego School of Medicine to measure liver fat,” according to the release.

“NAFLD is the most common cause of chronic liver disease in children, yet there is great controversy over the role of dietary fat versus dietary sugar versus calories in general,” Schwimmer said in the release. “There is a growing body of indirect evidence that supports the importance of sugar as a potential cause or contributor to fatty liver. Studies like this one are needed to be able to provide the best nutritional recommendations to the millions of children with NAFLD in the U.S.”

Disclosures: The study is being funded by the Nutrition Science Initiative. Healio.com/Hepatology was unable to confirm relevant financial disclosures at the time of publication.