A low-carb diet can help diabetics achieve weight loss and better glucose control than a low-fat diet. SciTechDaily Citing the Annals of Internal Medicine.
According to the results of a randomized study of over 100 people with type 2 diabetes, participating patients achieved better weight loss and glucose control during a 6-month intervention by following a low-carb, high-fat diet. and high-calorie versus a high-carb, low-calorie diet.
Expressive
long-term changes
The changes did not persist 3 months after the intervention study, indicating a need for long-term dietary changes to maintain significant health benefits.
More than 480 million people worldwide have type 2 diabetes. More than half of people with diabetes also have non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), which can progress to cirrhosis and impaired liver function.
Previous studies suggest that weight loss improves control of diabetes and NAFLD cases, and that limiting carbohydrate intake improves blood sugar control.
Scientists at the University of Southern Denmark randomly assigned 165 people with type 2 diabetes to either follow a low-carb, high-fat LCHF diet or a high-carb, low-fat HCLF diet. for 6 months. Participants in both groups were asked to eat the same number of calories equal to their energy expenditure.
Patients on a low-carb diet were instructed to consume no more than 20% of their calories from carbohydrates, but could get 50-60% of their calories from fat and 20-30% from protein. Participants on the low-fat diet were asked to eat half their calories from carbohydrates, with the rest split evenly between fat and protein.
Cholesterol and triglycerides
The researchers found that people on the low-carb diet had 0.59% greater reduction in hemoglobin A1c than on the low-fat diet and lost 3.8 kg more weight than on the low-fat diet. those in the low-fat group. The low-carb diet participants also lost more body fat and reduced waist circumference. Both groups had higher HDL cholesterol and lower triglycerides at 6 months.
But the changes did not last 3 months after surgery, suggesting that dietary changes need to be continued long-term to maintain effects. The liver was unaffected by the higher fats in the low-carb group, as the researchers found no differences in the amount of liver fat or inflammation between the two groups.
