Association between Nutrients and Visceral Fat in Healthy Japanese Adults: A 2-Year Longitudinal Study Brief Title: Micronutrients Associated with Visceral Fat Accumulation.

Ozato Ozato,Yamaguchi Yamaguchi,Ihara Ihara,Katsuragi Katsuragi,Imoto Imoto,Saito Saito,Katashima Katashima,Sawada Sawada,Nakaji Nakaji,Tokuda Tokuda

doi:10.3390/nu11112698

Ozato Ozato, Yamaguchi Yamaguchi + Show 8 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/nu11112698

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Abstract

High visceral fat area (VFA) is a stronger predictor of cardiovascular disease and overall mortality than body mass index or waist circumference. VFA may be decreased by proper dietary habits. Although previous epidemiologic studies demonstrated an association between nutritional components or foodstuffs and VFA, only the associations of a few nutrients, such as dietary fiber and calcium, are reported. We performed a comprehensive 2-year longitudinal study in more than 624 healthy people and analyzed 33 micronutrients to investigate nutrients that contribute to changes in visceral fat. Our analyses revealed that “macronutrients” and “micronutrients” were “mutual confounders”. Therefore, when evaluating the association between VFA and micronutrients, associations were adjusted by macronutrients. The ingestion of 7 nutrients: soluble dietary fiber, manganese, potassium, magnesium, vitamin K, folic acid, and pantothenic acid, which are abundant components in vegetable diets, was significantly inversely correlated with a change in VFA. Additionally, a change in the ingestion of one nutrient, monounsaturated fat, was significantly positively correlated with a change in VFA. These associations were independent of body mass index and waist circumference. Thus, a predominantly vegetable diet may decrease VFA. In addition, adjusting the intake of macronutrients might help to clarify the association of micronutrients with VFA.

Highlights

Obesity results from an imbalance between energy consumption and expenditure
We reported the association of visceral fat and nutrition in healthy Asians who eat mainly rice and tend to accumulate more visceral fat compared with Westerners [25] in a cross-sectional study [12,19]
Baseline Characteristics Based on the Cut-Off Point for Visceral Obesity

Summary

Introduction

Increases in physical activity or proper dietary habits are recommended for maintaining an appropriate body weight [1]. Dietary habits are crucial in the development of overweight and obesity [2], and suboptimal diet can potentially be a major contributor to mortality in all countries worldwide [3]. Nutrients 2019, 11, 2698 disease [4] and all-cause mortality [5,6,7] independent of the body mass index (BMI) and general obesity. Concentrations, and low serum high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, is more strongly associated with the visceral fat area (VFA) than high subcutaneous fat, waist circumference (WC), or BMI [8,9]. Evaluation of diets to reduce VFA is important to protect against poor metabolic status

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