Table 2.

Principal features of Western diet, Vegan diet, and Mediterranean diet.

	Western Diet	Vegan Diet	Mediterranean Diet
Characteristics	High fat and sugar	High vegetable	Low meat
		Low fat	High vegetable and olive oil
		No meat	High plant-based foods
Main components	Red meat	Fiber	Fiber
	(Saturated fat and cholesterol)	Grain	Antioxidants
	Refined grains	Cereals	Unsaturated fats
	Fructose beverage		Whole grain
Health consequences	Obesity	Healthy (if balanced) Deficiency of essential macro and micronutrients (if unbalanced)	Healthy
	Insulin resistance
	NAFLD
	Diabetes
	CVD
Mechanisms	↑ Adipose tissue ↑ Circulating FFAs ↑ Hepatic lipid accumulation ↑ Triglycerides ↑ Cholesterol ↑ Fasting glucose ↑ De novo lipogenesis ↑ VLDL ↑ ER stress ↑ Lysosomal permeabilization ↓ Insulin sensitivity	↓ Circulating FFAs ↓ Hepatic steatosis ↓ Lipolysis ↓ De novo lipogenesis ↑ Insulin sensitivity	↓ Circulating FFAs ↓ Hepatic steatosis ↓ Triglycerides ↓ Cholesterol ↓ Inflammation ↓ Lipolysis ↓ De novo lipogenesis ↓ ROS ↓ CRP ↑ Insulin sensitivity ↓ Inflammatory markers
Effect on Mitochondria	↑ mtROS	↓ mtROS	↓ mtROS
	↓ mitochondrial biogenesis	↑ mitochondrial biogenesis	↑ mitochondrial biogenesis
	↓ mitochondrial respiration	↑ mitochondrial respiration	↑ mitochondrial respiration
References	[188,190,191]	[189,192,193]	[194,195,196,197,198,199]

Abbreviation: NAFLD: non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, CVD: cardiovascular disease, FFAs: free fatty acids, ROS: reactive oxygen species, CRP: C-reactive protein, mtROS: mitochondrial reactive oxygen species, ER: endoplasmic reticulum, ↑: increased, ↓: decreased.