Nutritional intervention in the management of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease

Abstract

Lifestyle modification is the primary intervention to control NAFLD progression, but despite evidence-based effectiveness it is difficult to distinguish the benefits of nutrition from physical activity and the optimal diet composition is not established. Macronutrients as saturated fatty acids, sugars and animal proteins are harmful in NAFLD and the Mediterranean Diet reducing sugar, red meat and refined carbohydrates and increasing unsaturated-fatty-acids was reported to be beneficial. However one size cannot fit all since NAFLD is a multifaceted syndrome encompassing many diseases of unknown etiologies, different clinical severity and outcomes. Studies of the intestinal metagenome, provided new insights into the physio-pathological interplay between intestinal microbiota and NAFLD. How much the microbiota heterogeneity can influence response to diet remains unknown. New knowledge indicates that AI guided personalized nutrition based on clinic-pathologic and genetic data combined with pre/post nutritional intervention gut metagenomics/metabolomics will be part of the future management of NAFLD.