Combined effects of dietary inflammatory index and vigorous physical activity on abdominal adipose tissue: analysis of NHANES 2011-2018.

Abstract

Background: The accumulation of abdominal visceral (VAT) and subcutaneous adipose tissue (SAT) has been closely correlated with an array of metabolic disorders and chronic inflammation. This study elucidated the joint effects of a dietary inflammatory index (DII) and vigorous intensity physical activity (PA) on VAT and SAT.

Methods: The study enrolled 3,444 adults sourced from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). The NHANES is designed with a sophisticated, multistage probability sampling methodology and is specifically tailored to comprehensively assess the health and nutritional conditions of the non-institutionalized population. Utilizing the initial 24 h dietary recall data from the NHANES database, our analysis incorporated 28 distinct food parameters for calculating the DII score. Multiple linear regression models are used to calculate the β value and 95% confidence interval of independent and dependent variables.

Results: Compared with the pro-inflammatory diet group, VAT and SAT in the anti-inflammatory diet group were lower [-21.60 (-32.63, -10.58, P < 0.01) and - 85.67 (-108.80, -62.55, P < 0.01)]. The VAT and SAT in the sufficient vigorous intensity PA group were lower than those in the insufficient vigorous intensity PA group [-27.13 (-38.40, -15.86), P < 0.01; -57.05 (-80.82, -33.27), P < 0.01]. There was a linear positive association between DII with VAT (P < 0.01, P for nonlinearity = 0.13) and SAT (P < 0.01, P for nonlinearity = 0.06). Additionally, there were significant L-shaped relationships between vigorous intensity PA with VAT and SAT (all log-likelihood ratio P < 0.05).

Conclusion: A lifestyle of anti-inflammatory diet incorporated with sufficient vigorous intensity PA was associated with lower VAT and SAT. Notably, the increase of vigorous intensity PA is associated with the decrease of VAT and SAT in the L-shaped relationships, suggesting that the vigorous intensity PA with at least 75 min per week may be related to greater benefits of VAT.