A new study found a simple diet that can affect the blood sugar levels of diabetics and prediabetics who do not take meds.
Diabetes affects around 37 million Americans and is caused by the body’s inability to effectively utilise insulin and regulate blood sugar levels.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say that more than 90% of these people have type 2 diabetes. With symptoms including blurred vision, numb hands and feet, and general exhaustion, type 2 diabetes can have a significant negative impact on quality of life. It can also lead to other serious health issues like heart disease, eyesight loss, and kidney disease.
The results of the study are particularly significant for people with prediabetes, whose A1c values are above normal but below those that would be considered to be diabetic.
The CDC says that about 96 million Americans have prediabetes, and more than 80% of those who have it don’t know it.
A healthy diet is even more important for those who have prediabetes since they are more likely to develop Type 2 diabetes, heart attacks, or strokes and typically do not use medication to control blood sugar levels.
According to new Tulane University research, a low-carb diet can help people with unmedicated diabetes — as well as those at risk for diabetes — reduce their blood sugar.
In the study, two groups—one allocated to a low-carb diet and the other continuing with their regular diet—were compared. It was published in the journal JAMA Network Open.
When compared to the control group, the low-carb diet group experienced higher declines in hemoglobin A1c, a blood sugar level marker, after six months. In addition to losing weight, the low-carbohydrate diet group reduced fasting glucose levels.
A1c readings dropped 0.23% more in the low-carb group than in the regular diet group, which lead author Kirsten Dorans described as “modest but clinically relevant.”
Importantly, lipids accounted for around half of the calories consumed by the low-carb group, but they were primarily beneficial monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats found in foods such as olive oil and nuts.
According to Dorans, the study doesn’t establish that a low-carb diet can fend against diabetes.
It does, however, open the door for more research on how to lower the health risks connected to prediabetes and diabetes among people who are not taking medication to treat them.
“We already know that a low-carbohydrate diet is one dietary approach used among people who have Type 2 diabetes, but there is not as much evidence on effects of this diet on blood sugar in people with prediabetes,” Dorans said. “Future work could be done to see if this dietary approach may be an alternative approach for Type 2 diabetes prevention.”
“The key message,” according to the lead author, “is that a low-carbohydrate diet if maintained, might be a useful approach for preventing and treating Type 2 diabetes, though more research is needed.”
Source:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.38645
Image Credit: Getty
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