Inverse Association of Fruit and Vegetable Consumption with Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease in Chinese Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus

• Published in: Nutrients Vol. 14; no. 21; p. 4559
• Main Authors: Du, Lin-Jia, He, Zhi-Ying, Gu, Xiao, Hu, Xiang, Zhang, Xing-Xing, Yang, Li-Juan, Li, Jing, Pan, Lin-Yu, Li, Ying-Qian, Yang, Bo, Gu, Xue-Jiang
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 29.10.2022; MDPI
• Subjects: Analysis; Blood pressure; Body mass index; China - epidemiology; Cholesterol; Chronic illnesses; Complications and side effects; Cross-Sectional Studies; Diabetes; Diabetes mellitus; Diabetes mellitus (non-insulin dependent); Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 - epidemiology; Diabetics; Diet; dietary; Dietary intake; Educational attainment; Family medical history; Fatty liver; Female; Fruit; fruit and vegetable; Fruits; Glucose; Health aspects; Hepatitis; High density lipoprotein; Humans; Insulin resistance; Laboratories; Lifestyles; Lipids; Lipoproteins; Liver; Liver diseases; Male; Medical research; Medicine, Experimental; Metabolic disorders; NAFLD; Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease - epidemiology; Normal distribution; Obesity; Population; Prevention; Questionnaires; Risk Factors; Statistical analysis; Surveys; Type 2 diabetes; type 2 diabetes mellitus; Ultrasonic imaging; Vegetables; Womens health; China; United States > US; type 2 diabetes mellitus; NAFLD; dietary; fruit and vegetable
• ISSN: 2072-6643; 2072-6643
• DOI: 10.3390/nu14214559

We aimed to investigate the association of fruit and vegetable consumption with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) in Chinese patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). This cross-sectional study included 2667 Chinese patients with T2DM aged 18 to 76 years from March 2017 to October 2021. Dietary intake was assessed using a food frequency questionnaire, and prevalent NAFLD was diagnosed with abdominal ultrasonography. High fruit−vegetable consumption was determined using ≥500 g/day consumption of both fruit and vegetable, and both fruit and vegetable consumption were divided into three categories of <200 g/day (low), 200−400 g/day (median) and >400 g (high). The primary outcome measurement was multivariate-adjusted odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for the prevalence of NAFLD in relation to the highest fruit and (or) vegetable intake compared with the lowest. Secondary analyses were conducted to assess the effects of either fruit or vegetable intake on the fatty liver index (FLI) using multivariable linear regressions. There were 1694 men and 973 women in this study, and 1445 (54.06%) participants had prevalent NAFLD. Patients with high fruit−vegetable intake had a lower prevalence of NAFLD than those with low fruit−vegetable intake (52.04% vs. 56.48%), but this difference was not statistically significant (p = 0.065). Vegetable intake had a significantly inverse association with NAFLD (OR: 0.68, 95% CI: 0.52−0.90), but this association was not pronounced with fruit intake (OR: 1.23, 95% CI: 0.89−1.69) or fruit−vegetable intake (OR: 0.90, 95% CI: 0.73−1.10). Additional analyses showed that an increase in vegetable intake was linearly associated with a significant reduction in FLI (β: −1.028, 95% CI: −1.836, −0.219). In conclusion, higher vegetable consumption was associated with lower odds of NAFLD in Chinese patients with T2DM, which suggested that increased vegetable intake might protect patients with diabetes against NAFLD.