Association between dietary acid load with weight status, dietray quality index (DQI), mean adequacy ratio and energy density among women

Dietary acid load affects acid–base homeostasis, which may be associated with overweight and obesity as well as dietary quality index international (DQI-I), mean adequacy ratio (MAR), energy density (ED). This study was done to determine the association between dietary acid load with weight status and dietary quality indices among women. This descriptive-analytic study was randomly performed on 306 women aged 20 to 55years. Dietary acid load was calculated by potential renal acid load (PRAL), net endogenous acid production (NEAP) and dietary acid load (DAL). DQI-I, MAR, ED were estimated for the participants. The probability of obesity (95% CI=0.97-5.50, OR=2.33, P=0.04), as well as abdominal adiposity (95% CI=1.21-4.50, OR=2.4, P=0.005) was significantly increased with tertile of DAL (P<0.05). While even after control of confounder variables, other dietary acid load indices (PRAL and NEAP) showed no significant association between dietary acid load and obesity, overweight or abdominal obesity. Also ,with increasing dietary acid load scores, DQI-I and MAR significantly decreased whereas energy density showed a significant increased across tertile categories of dietary acid load indices (P<0.05). DAL was associated with increased risk of obesity and abdominal obesity. PRAL, NEAP and DAL were good indicators of diet quality indices.