Blood Lipid Responses to Diet Macronutrients

Dietary and lifestyle interventions are central to lowering the risk and preventing the development of metabolic disease, including non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. There is, however, no one fits all dietary approach, and in the context of diets where an individual is not gaining or losing weight (known as eucaloric), the optimal macronutrient composition associated with a reduced risk of metabolic disease and dyslipidemia is highly debated. For instance, eating less of one macronutrient implies eating more of another; a reduction in the intake of dietary carbohydrates is met by an increase in dietary fats. How this affects one's metabolic health in the setting when someone is not gaining or losing body weight is unclear.

Therefore, this study aims to provide an understanding of the effect that the quantity of specific dietary macronutrients (e.g., carbohydrates, fats) have on plasma triglyceride concentrations in both the fasting and postprandial state, liver fat content and metabolism, and cardiac fat content and function. An individual's genotype affects the metabolic response to a shift in dietary macronutrient content and this will be examined in this study.

Sixty volunteers free from metabolic disease will be recruited into a randomized, parallel-armed dietary intervention study. Participants will consume either a low carbohydrate, high-fat diet or a high carbohydrate, low-fat diet for up to 28 days. Diets will be eucaloric (i.e., designed to meet the individual participant's energy requirements). Comprehensive in vivo metabolic and physiological testing will be performed before and after the experimental diet to document the effects of the overconsumption of specific macronutrients (i.e., fats or carbohydrates) on liver and lipid metabolism.

Inclusion criteria

• Participant is willing and able to give informed consent for participation in the study.
• Male or Female, aged ≥18 to ≤65 years
• Body mass index (BMI) ≥19 to ≤35 kg/m2
• No medical condition or relevant drug therapy that is known to affect the liver, adipose tissue, or cardiac metabolism.
• Weight stable for the previous 3 months

Exclusion criteria

• Aged <18 or >65 years
• BMI <19 or >35 kg/m2
• A blood haemoglobin <135 mg/dL for men and <120 mg/dL for women
• Donated (or lost) ≥250 mL of blood in the previous two months
• On a weight loss diet or decreased their body weight by >5% in the previous 3 months
• Currently adhering to or have consumed in the previous 3 months a diet with a notably altered macro-nutrient content (e.g. high-fat - low-carbohydrate diet)
• Have increased their body weight by >5% in the previous 3 months
• Any metabolic condition or relevant drug therapy
• Current smoker
• History of alcoholism or a greater than recommended alcohol intake (>30 g of alcohol daily for men and >20 g of alcohol daily for women)
• History of albumin allergy.
• Pregnant or nursing mothers
• History of severe claustrophobia