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CLINICAL TRIAL article

Front. Nutr.
Sec. Clinical Nutrition
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fnut.2025.1505183
This article is part of the Research Topic Dietary Habits in Liver Health and Disease: Preclinical and Clinical Studies View all 12 articles

The effect of replacing grains with quinoa on cardiometabolic risk factors and liver function in patients with Non-alcoholic fatty liver (NAFLD): A randomized-controlled clinical trial

Provisionally accepted
Afsane Gholamrezayi Afsane Gholamrezayi Somayeh Hosseinpour-Niazi Somayeh Hosseinpour-Niazi Parvin Mirmiran Parvin Mirmiran *Azita Hekmatdoost Azita Hekmatdoost
  • Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Purpose: Quinoa is a food containing dietary fiber and various phytochemicals with high nutritional value, which has a structure similar to whole grains. This randomized controlled trial aimed to assess the effect of substituting grains with quinoa on cardiovascular risk factors and liver function in individuals with Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Methods: Forty-six participants were randomly assigned to either a control group, which maintained their regular grain-based diet, or an intervention group, where grains were replaced with quinoa for 12 weeks. Participants in the quinoa group were instructed to substitute grains with quinoa during lunch for 12 weeks. The primary outcome was to assess the changes in the Controlled Attenuation Parameter (CAP) score between the intervention and control groups. Secondary outcomes included the difference in cardiometabolic risk factors and liver function between the two groups. Results: Following 12 weeks of intervention with quinoa, a significant reduction in weight, and waist circumferences (WC) were observed compared to the control group (p value <0.05). Furthermore, even after adjustment for weight change, there was a significant reduction in CAP score, serum levels of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), and an improvement in homeostatic model assessment for insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) in the quinoa group compared to the control group after the 12 weeks (p value <0.05). However, no significant changes were observed in other measured parameters, including liver enzymes, fibroscan, fasting plasma glucose, total cholesterol (TC), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), and inflammatory factors. Conclusion: This study demonstrated that replacing grains with quinoa led to a significant improvement in the CAP score, HOMA-IR, and LDL-C in individuals with NAFLD, regardless of any weight changes. Thus, incorporating quinoa—a plentiful and low-cost source of bioactive compounds—into the diets of NAFLS patients as a staple food could improve several cardiometabolic risk factors in these individuals.

    Keywords: Quinoa, NAFLD, Liver function, lipid profile, randomized controlled trial, cardiovascular disease

    Received: 02 Oct 2024; Accepted: 14 Jan 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Gholamrezayi, Hosseinpour-Niazi, Mirmiran and Hekmatdoost. 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: Parvin Mirmiran, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.