Table 5.

Comparison between the number of meals consumed by NAFLD patients containing various food groups and the recommended numbers.

Food groups	Recommendation per 1000 kcal	Median/Minimum (range)	p-value
Cereals, roots and tubers	0.3 meals/day	2.1 (0.4; 4.4)	<0.00005a
Legumes (beans and other plant foods rich in protein)	0.5 meals/day	0.6 (0.0; 3.9)	0.0 a
Vegetables	1.5 meals/day	1.6 (0.0; 12.4)	0.01
Fruits	1.5 meals/day	0.9 (0.0; 7.4)	<0.00005
Milk and dairy products	1.5 meals/day	0.4 (0.0; 1.9)	<0.00005
Meat and eggs	0.5 meals/day	0.6 (0.0; 2.1)	0.003
Fats	0.5 meals/day	2.4 (0.3; 5.5)	<0.00005a
Sugars	0.5 meals/day	1.0 (0.0; 4.5)	<0.00005

NAFLD, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. Non-normally distributed variables were compared using the Wilcoxon test, and normally distributed variables were compared using the paired t-test (^a).