If you’re prediabetic, or even if you already have type 2 diabetes, what’s the best low-carb diet to reverse the problem?
The ketogenic diet is the best to kick-start the healing process—but it’s not sustainable beyond three months, when a modified Mediterranean diet should be introduced, a new study has discovered.
Levels of fats in the blood—the triglycerides—fell by 16 percent, and weight loss was greater, on the keto diet, researchers at Stanford University’s School of Medicine have discovered.
They tested the two diets on a group of 40 participants who were either prediabetic or had been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. Both diets included non-starchy vegetables, and excluded added sugars and refined grains, but the keto also left out legumes, fruit and whole grains.
Although those on the keto diet saw their blood fat levels and weight fall faster than those on the Med diet, their cholesterol levels—both LDL and the supposedly ‘bad’ HDL—rose.
But the keto diet was too strict to be a long-term option, the researchers said, as it wasn’t providing essential nutrients, and elevated cholesterol levels were also a worry; overall, the modified Med diet was a better choice, even though it was less effective in the first few months.
(Source: American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 2022; nqac154; doi: 10.1093/ajcn/nqac154)
