Effect of a high monounsaturated vs high polyunsaturated fat hypocaloric diets in nonalcoholic fatty liver disease

Hyperaminotransferasemia is an important problem in obese patients. We decide to examine the changes in hyperaminotransferasemia after weight reduction in obese patients with and without NAFLD secondary to a high monounsaturated fat vs. a high polyunsaturated fat hypocaloric diets.

A population of 306 obese patients was randomly allocated to two groups: Diet M (high monounsaturated fat hypocaloric diet) and Diet P (high polyunsaturated fat hypocaloric diet). Patients were classified as group I (obese subjects; n=262) when serum ALT activity was normal or group II (NAFLD patients; n=44) when serum ALT activity was (≥ 43 UI/L).

In NAFLD group with diet M, BMI, weight, fat mass, waist circumference, systolic blood pressure, total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol), insulin and HOMA-R decreased. In NAFLD group with diet P, BMI, weight, fat mass, waist circumference, systolic blood pressure, total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol), insulin and HOMA-R decreased, too. In NAFLD group, alanine aminotransferase [(diet M) -20.3±19.2 UI/L vs. (diet P) -14.2±20.1 UI/L], aspartate aminotransferase [(diet M) -11.3±12.2 UI/L vs. (diet P) -11.1±10.1 UI/L], and gammaglutamyl transferase [(diet M) -18.1±12.2 UI/L vs. (diet P) -10.9±20.1 UI/L] improved with both diets.

We showed that weight reduction secondary to two hypocaloric diets was associated with improvement in hypertransaminasemia and insulin resistance in NAFLD patients.