ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Public Health and Nutrition
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1624848
This article is part of the Research TopicMetabolic dysfunction and steatotic liver diseaseView all 5 articles
Association of Sugary Beverages Consumption with Liver Fat Content and Fibro-inflammation: a Large Cohort Study
Provisionally accepted
Xiaoyang Liao*
Zhou Yiheng
Yu Jia
Yi YaoYu ChengYonglang ChengRong YangRui ZengZhi WanQian Zhao
Dongze Li- West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China
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Objective: Liver fat content (LFC) and hepatic fibro-inflammation (HFI) accumulation are the primary pathological manifestation of steatohepatitis. The association between intake of sugary beverages (SBs), including artificially-sweetened beverages (ASB), sugar-sweetened beverages (SSB), and natural juices (NJs), and LFC or HFI remains unclear. Methods: The study included 25,885 participant who completed at least one online dietary assessment and magnetic resonance imaging. LFC and HFI were quantified using the liver proton density fat fraction (PDFF) and iron-corrected T1 (cT1). Results: Compared to those without ASB and SSB intake, the arithmetic mean difference (AMD) of PDFF was 0.15 (95% Cl: 0.06 to 0.24) and 0.21 (95% Cl: 0.12 to 0.29), and the AMD of cT1 was 3.86 (95% CI, 1.26 to 6.79) and 2.43 (95% CI: 1.31 to 3.57) in individuals with ≥1 serving/d, respectively. Individuals with 0-1 serving/d had lower PDFF (AMD: -0.10 95%Cl: -0.19 to -0.01) than those without NJs intake. In Quantile G-computation models, SSB and ASB contributed most in the AMD of PDFF (54.7%) and cT1 (53.1%), respectively. When replacing ASB and SSB with water, the progress of PDFF was improved. Conclusion: ASB and SSB intake were positively associated with LFC and HFI, and moderate NJs intake was slightly negatively associated with LFC but not HFI.
Keywords: Sugary beverages, Liver fat content, Hepatic fibro-inflammation, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, proton density fat fraction
Received: 08 May 2025; Accepted: 22 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Liao, Yiheng, Jia, Yao, Cheng, Cheng, Yang, Zeng, Wan, Zhao and Li. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Xiaoyang Liao, liaoxiaoyang@wchscu.cn
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