A low-carbohydrate diet may be an effective dietary approach to prevent and treat type 2 diabetes

While low-carb diets are often recommended for people who are being treated for diabetes, there is little evidence on whether eating fewer carbohydrates affects blood sugar
in people with diabetes or prediabetes who are not treated with medication.

Now, according to a new study from Tulane University, a low-carb diet can help lower blood sugar
in unmedicated diabetics and people at risk for diabetes.

The study, published in JAMA Network Open, compared two groups: one group was assigned to a low-carb diet and the other continued their daily diet
.
After six months, glycosylated hemoglobin (a marker of blood sugar levels) decreased more
in the low-carbohydrate diet group compared to the normal diet group.
The low-carbohydrate diet group also experienced a decrease in body weight and lower
fasting blood sugar levels.

Lead author Kirsten Dorans, assistant professor of epidemiology at Tulane University's School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, said: "The key message is that a low-carbohydrate diet may be an effective way to prevent and treat type 2 diabetes, although more research
is needed.
"

About 37 million Americans have diabetes, which occurs when the body can't use insulin properly and can't regulate blood sugar levels
.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), type 2 diabetes accounts for more than
90% of these cases.
Type 2 diabetes can seriously affect quality of life, with symptoms including blurred vision, numbness in the hands and feet, and general fatigue, as well as other serious health problems such as heart disease, vision loss and kidney disease
.

The study's findings are especially important
for prediabetic patients with higher glycosylated hemoglobin levels than normal but below diabetic levels.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 96 million Americans have prediabetes, and more than 80 percent of those with prediabetes are unaware
.
People with prediabetes are at higher risk of type 2 diabetes, heart attack or stroke, and often don't take medications that lower blood sugar levels, so a healthy diet is even more critical
.

Participants had blood sugar levels between prediabetes and diabetes and were not taking diabetes medication
.
Glycated hemoglobin levels in the low-carb group decreased by 0.
23 percent compared to the normal diet group, which Dorrance calls "modest but clinically relevant.
"
Importantly, fat accounts for about half of the calories consumed by people in the low-carb group, but most of these fats are healthy monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats, which are found in
foods such as olive oil and nuts.

Dorrance said the study doesn't prove that a low-carb diet prevents diabetes
.
But it does open the door
to further research into how to reduce health risks for pre-diabetics and those with diabetes who are not treated with medication.

"We already know that low-carbohydrate diets are a dietary approach for people with type 2 diabetes, but there's not much evidence that this diet has an effect on blood sugar in people with prediabetes," Dorans said
.
"Future work can be done to see if this dietary approach may be an alternative way to
prevent type 2 diabetes.
"

Journal Reference:

1. Kirsten S.
   Dorans, Lydia A.
   Bazzano, Lu Qi, Hua He, Jing Chen, Lawrence J.
   Appel, Chung-Shiuan Chen, Ming-Hui Hsieh, Frank B.
   Hu, Katherine T.
   Mills, Bernadette T.
   Nguyen, Matthew J.
   O’ Brien, Jonathan M.
   Samet, Gabriel I.
   Uwaifo, Jiang He.
   Effects of a Low-Carbohydrate Dietary Intervention on Hemoglobin A1c.
   JAMA Network Open, 2022; 5 (10): e2238645 DOI: 10.
   1001/jamanetworkopen.
   2022.
   38645