Citat:
American children consume 27% of calories from high-fat and high-sugar snacks. Both sugar and fat consumption have been implicated as a cause of hepatic steatosis and obesity but the effect of meal pattern is largely underexposed. We hypothesized that a high meal frequency, compared to consuming large meals, is detrimental in the accumulation of intrahepatic and abdominal fat. To test this hypothesis, we randomized 36 lean, healthy men to a 40% hypercaloric diet for six weeks or a eucaloric control diet and measured intrahepatic triglyceride content (IHTG) using 1 H-MRS, abdominal fat using MRI and insulin sensitivity using hyperinsulinemic euglycemic clamp with glucose isotope tracer before and after the diet intervention. The caloric surplus consisted of fat and sugar (high-fat-high-sugar; HFHS) or sugar only (high-sugar; HS) and was consumed together with, or in between the 3 main meals, thereby increasing meal size or meal frequency. All hypercaloric diets similarly increased BMI. Increasing meal frequency significantly increased IHTG (HFHS +45%; p=0.016 and HS +110%; p=0.047) whereas increasing meal size did not (2-way-ANOVA size vs frequency p=0.03). Abdominal fat increased in the HFHS-frequency group (+63.3 ± 42.8 ml; p=0.004) and tended to increase in the HS-frequency group (+46.5 ± 50.7 ml; p=0.08). Hepatic insulin sensitivity tended to decrease in the HFHS-frequency group only. Peripheral insulin sensitivity was not affected.
Conclusions:
A hypercaloric diet with high meal frequency increased IHTG and abdominal fat independent of caloric content and body weight, whereas increasing meal size did not. This study suggests that snacking, a common feature in the Western diet, independently contributes to hepatic steatosis and obesity.
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Hepatology. 2014 Mar 26. Hypercaloric diets with increased meal frequency, but not meal size, increase intrahepatic triglycerides: A randomized controlled trial.