Association between dietary glycemic index and liver enzymes level among apparently healthy adults.

OBJECTIVE: The previous studies have revealed that there is a link between dietary glycemic index and lipid profile in overweight and obesity. The aim of study was to investigate whether the glycemic index is associated with liver enzymes. METHOD: Anthropometric and biochemical parameters were measured in 265 participants. Dietary glycemic index (GI) was assessed by using a validated food-frequency questionnaire. With adjusting confounder variable, Binary logistic regression was also used to predict the relationship between liver enzymes and quartile of intake. RESULTS: There was a significant difference between low and high GI diet for BMR (P = 0.01), FFM (P = 0.03), TG (P = 0.02), HDL (P = 0.002). The association between HDL and glycemic index remained significant after adjustment of sex and age (P = 0.03). Using the regression model following adjustment revealed that for each 1% increase in the degree of the GI, there was 11% elevation in liver enzyme abnormalities. In both groups of men and women, enzyme abnormalities positively correlated with GI, while only men showed remarkable correlation in all models (crude model: ß = 0.07, OR = 1.07, CI = 0.98to 1.16). Additionally, an increase in the degree of GI caused an elevation in enzyme abnormalities by 7%. With adjusting sex, age, BMI, and Physical activity, a significance correlation was found between GI and Enzyme abnormalities (p-value = 0.03, OR = 1.115). CONCLUSION: Our study indicated that high glycemic index diet led to the elevated levels of the liver enzymes, while being significant only in men.