Low-carb diet may help patients with diabetes achieve better weight loss and glucose control in short term compared to a low-fat diet

A randomized controlled trial of more than 100 persons with type 2 diabetes found that a low-carbohydrate, high-fat, calorie unrestricted diet helped patients achieve better weight loss and glucose control over a 6-month intervention compared to a high-carb, low-fat diet. The changes were not sustained 3 months after the intervention, suggesting a need for long-term dietary changes to maintain meaningful health benefits. The findings are published in Annals of Internal Medicine.

More than 480 million people worldwide are affected by type 2 diabetes. More than half of persons with diabetes also have nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), which can progress to cirrhosis and impair liver function. Prior studies suggest that weight loss improves both diabetes control and NAFLD and restriction of carbohydrate intake improves the control of blood sugar levels.

Researchers from the University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark, randomly assigned 165 persons with type 2 diabetes to either a LCHF diet or a HCLF diet for 6 months. Participants in both groups were asked to eat the same number of calories equal to their energy expenditure. Participants on the low carb diet were asked to eat no more than 20% of their calories from carbohydrates but could have 50- 60% of their calories from fat and 20-30% from protein. Patients on the low-fat diet were asked to eat about half of their calories in carbohydrates and the rest evenly split between fats and proteins.