Minireviews
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2018. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. May 21, 2018; 24(19): 2083-2094
Published online May 21, 2018. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v24.i19.2083
Mediterranean diet and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease
Caterina Anania, Francesco Massimo Perla, Francesca Olivero, Lucia Pacifico, Claudio Chiesa
Caterina Anania, Francesco Massimo Perla, Francesca Olivero, Lucia Pacifico, Policlinico Umberto I Hospital, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome 00161, Italy
Claudio Chiesa, Institute of Translational Pharmacology, National Research Council, Rome 00133, Italy
Author contributions: Anania C, Perla FM, Pacifico L and Chiesa C contributed to study conception and design, analyzed the data and wrote the manuscript; Olivero F collected the data; all the authors participated in the critical review and in the final approval of the manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: Nothing to disclosure.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Claudio Chiesa, MD, Professor, Institute of Translational Pharmacology, National Research Council, Via Fosso del Cavaliere 100, Rome 00133, Italy. claudio.chiesa@ift.cnr.it
Telephone: +39-6-49979215 Fax: +39-6-49979216
Received: March 28, 2018
Peer-review started: March 29, 2018
First decision: April 19, 2018
Revised: April 27, 2018
Accepted: May 5, 2018
Article in press: May 5, 2018
Published online: May 21, 2018
Processing time: 50 Days and 18.5 Hours
Core Tip

Core tip: Lifestyle interventions based on exercise and a balanced diet, are considered the cornerstone of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) management. The Mediterranean diet (MD), low in saturated fats and animal protein, high in antioxidants and fibers, and with an adequate omega-3 to omega-6 fatty balance, has been suggested to be effective in NAFLD. Although the results from the available studies are encouraging, there is still need of trials with larger sample size, along with the standardization of the criteria to evaluate adherence to the diet, before including the MD as a therapeutic dietary pattern in NAFLD.