Association between Nutrients and Visceral Fat in Healthy Japanese Adults: A 2-Year Longitudinal Study Brief Title: Micronutrients Associated with Visceral Fat Accumulation

High visceral fat area (VFA) is a stronger predictor of cardiovascular disease and overall mortality than body mass index or waist circumference. VFA may be decreased by proper dietary habits. Although previous epidemiologic studies demonstrated an association between nutritional components or foodstuffs and VFA, only the associations of a few nutrients, such as dietary fiber and calcium, are reported. We performed a comprehensive 2-year longitudinal study in more than 624 healthy people and analyzed 33 micronutrients to investigate nutrients that contribute to changes in visceral fat. Our analyses revealed that “macronutrients” and “micronutrients” were “mutual confounders”. Therefore, when evaluating the association between VFA and micronutrients, associations were adjusted by macronutrients. The ingestion of 7 nutrients: soluble dietary fiber, manganese, potassium, magnesium, vitamin K, folic acid, and pantothenic acid, which are abundant components in vegetable diets, was significantly inversely correlated with a change in VFA. Additionally, a change in the ingestion of one nutrient, monounsaturated fat, was significantly positively correlated with a change in VFA. These associations were independent of body mass index and waist circumference. Thus, a predominantly vegetable diet may decrease VFA. In addition, adjusting the intake of macronutrients might help to clarify the association of micronutrients with VFA.