Can Diet Help Non-Obese Individuals with Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD)?

• Main Author: Hamid A. Merchant
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2017-09-01
• Series: Journal of Clinical Medicine
• Subjects: diabetes risk; insulin resistance; fatty liver disease; hyperinsulinemia; NAFLD; NASH; intensive lifestyle change program
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0383/6/9/88

Subjects diagnosed with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) or hepatic steatosis are usually obese or overweight. NAFLD has also been reported in many non-obese healthy subjects as an incidental finding during imaging. Subjects with early-stage NAFLD who are otherwise healthy are often left unmanaged in current clinical practice; it is not clear if an early intervention in those individuals would be of any benefit in preventing NAFLD progression to more serious conditions. Since many of these subjects are non-alcoholic and have a normal body mass index (BMI), an intensive lifestyle change program is not usually recommended. This report presents an otherwise healthy non-alcoholic subject with incidental NAFLD having a normal BMI and a waist circumference below 90 cm who successfully reversed his condition by undertaking a lifestyle intervention. The case report is expected to encourage large cohort studies to substantiate the benefits of dietary interventions in alleviating hepatic steatosis among non-obese individuals.