title: Effects of moderate red wine consumption on liver fat and blood lipids: a prospective randomized study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  There have been no human prospective randomized studies of the amount of alcohol that can induce hepatic steatosis.
  
  
  METHODS
  Thirty-two healthy women and twelve healthy men (34 ± 9 years of age) were randomized to consume 150 ml of red wine/day for women (16 g ethanol/day) or double that amount for men (33 g ethanol/day), or to alcohol abstention for 90 days. Participants underwent proton-nuclear magnetic-resonance spectroscopy for measurement of hepatic triglyceride content (HTGC). Blood samples for assessment of cardiovascular risk were drawn before and after the intervention.
  
  
  RESULTS
  After exclusion of three subjects with steatosis at baseline a trend towards increased HTGC was apparent for red wine (before median: 1.1%, range 0.2-3.9%, after median: 1.1%, range 0.5-5.2 %, P = 0.059) a difference that was statistically significant compared with abstainers (p = 0.02). However, no subject developed hepatic steatosis. Low-density lipoprotein (LDL)-cholesterol was lowered by red wine (-0.3 mmol/l, SE -0.1, 95% CI -0.6 to -0.04).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Moderate consumption of red wine during three months increased HTGC in subjects without steatosis at baseline. However, since not a single participant developed steatosis we suggest that the threshold of alcohol consumption to define nonalcoholic fatty liver disease should not be lower than the amount in our study.
authors: Department of Medical and Health Sciences, Linköping University, Sweden.
authors: Stergios
authors: S
authors: Kechagias
authors: Sepehr
authors: S
authors: Zanjani
authors: Solveig
authors: S
authors: Gjellan
authors: Olof Dahlqvist
authors: OD
authors: Leinhard
authors: Johan
authors: J
authors: Kihlberg
authors: Orjan
authors: O
authors: Smedby
authors: Lars
authors: L
authors: Johansson
authors: Joel
authors: J
authors: Kullberg
authors: Håkan
authors: H
authors: Ahlström
authors: Torbjörn
authors: T
authors: Lindström
authors: Fredrik H
authors: FH
authors: Nystrom