Animal protein intake and hepatic steatosis in the elderly: authors' response

[...]we have not studied mechanistic pathways underlying our findings. [...]to the impression by Tang and Mann, our main findings are not that surprising at all. Mounting evidence from other large population studies (with an average age of about 55 years) support our results on animal protein being associated with higher prevalence of NAFLD.7 8 Also, the presumable detrimental effect of monosaccharides and disaccharides is thought to be only true in presence of excess caloric intake or related to specific food sources such as sugar-containing beverages, for which we already corrected in our analyses.9 In conclusion, our population-based study gives insight into the correlation between macronutrients and NAFLD.