Low carb diet for diabetes?

Tuesday January 6th, 2009

People with diabetes may benefit from eating a low carbohydrate diet, researchers claimed last night.

Researchers said volunteers were able to give up medication as a result of adopting the diet, popularly associated with the Atkins diet.

The findings apply to people with type 2 diabetes, which does not involve regular insulin injections.

The research at Duke University Medical Center was funded by the Robert C Atkins Foundation and published in the journal Nutrition and Metabolism.

Some 84 volunteers took part in the research. Some adopted a low-carbohydrate diet while others stuck to a low sugar diet.

Researcher Dr Eric Westman said: "It's simple If you cut out the carbohydrates, your blood sugar goes down, and you lose weight which lowers your blood sugar even further. It's a one-two punch."

The Atkins diet became controversial amidst claims it allowed participants to eat large quantities of fatty meat.

But Dr Westman said the diet for people with diabetes would not prove "easy".

He said: "This is a therapeutic diet for people who are sick. These lifestyle approaches all have an intensive behavioural component.

"In our programme, people come in every two weeks to get reinforcements and reminders."

He explained: "We found you can get a three-fold improvement in type 2 diabetes as evidenced by a standard test of the amount of sugar in the blood. That's an important distinction because as a physician who is faced with the choice of drugs or diet, I want a strong diet that's shown to improve type 2 diabetes and minimize medication use."

Nutrition & Metabolism 2008, 5:36doi:10.1186/1743-7075-5-36

Tags: Diabetes | Nutrition & Healthy Eating | North America

Printer friendly page