Association of the Composite Dietary Antioxidant Index and Consumption Time with NAFLD: The U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 2017-2020.

Abstract

Listen

Translate article

The timing of food intake can affect the physiological and metabolic functions of the body. However, whether and how the timing of dietary antioxidant intake could influence non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is largely unknown. The Composite Dietary Antioxidant Index (CDAI) serves as a comprehensive measure that encompasses various dietary antioxidants. This study aims to investigate the association between the meal timing of CDAI and NAFLD in American adults. We used data from the 2017-2020 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). Dietary intake was assessed through the implementation of two non-concurrent 24-h dietary recalls. Vibration-controlled transient elastography was employed to assess the controlled attenuation as an indicator of NAFLD. CDAI across the day (total, breakfast, lunch, dinner) and Δ CDAI (Δ = dinner-breakfast) were categorized into quartiles. Weighted logistic regression models and restricted cubic splines were used to evaluate the association between the meal timing of CDAI and NAFLD. Of the 6570 participants in this study, 1153 had NAFLD. Participants in the highest quartile of total CDAI levels had a lower risk of NAFLD compared with the lowest quartile (OR = 0.52; 95% CI, 0.38-0.71). More importantly, participants in the highest quartile of dinner CDAI, but not those in that of breakfast or lunch, had a lower risk of NAFLD (OR = 0.54; 95% CI, 0.40-0.73) compared with the lowest quartile. The restricted cubic splines indicated a linear relationship between total CDAI and NAFLD (Pfor nonlinearity = 0.70), as well as between dinner CDAI and NAFLD (Pfor nonlinearity = 0.19). Stratification analyses revealed that the effect of dinner CDAI on NAFLD varied between non-Hispanic Whites and individuals of other races (Pfor interaction = 0.032). these findings suggest the potential beneficial effects of an antioxidant-rich diet and strategic meal timing on NAFLD.