I’ve seen a few mentions of some new research coming out in the October issue of Nutrition regarding the beneficial effects of low carb and very low carb ketogenic diets for the treatment of type 2 diabetics. Unfortunately, the main article is behind a paywall, but the abstract looks tantalizing:

• Experiment duration was 24 weeks. Much research is flawed because the duration is absurdly short…this appears to be of sufficient duration to begin to offer meaningful results.
• 102 diagnosed type 2 diabetics were tested among ~300 subjects
• Body weight, body mass index, changes in waist circumference, blood glucose level, changes in hemoglobin and glycosylated hemoglobin, total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, triglycerides, uric acid, urea and creatinine were measured every 4 weeks

The experiment saw the following results:

The Low Carb Diet (LCD) and Low Carb Ketogenic Diet (LCKD) had beneficial effects on all the parameters examined. Interestingly, these changes were more significant in subjects who were on the LCKD as compared with those on the LCD. Changes in the level of creatinine were not statistically significant.

It seems like the keto diet outperformed the standard low carb diet, but both diets showed improvements.  It will be nice to dig into the full text of this to see how the diets differed, how they measured compliance, and exactly how the biomarkers changed for all groups over time.  Until we can see the full text, however, all we are left with is a promising teaser starting to make waves in the press.

Resources

• Effect of low-calorie versus low-carbohydrate ketogenic diet in type 2 diabetes, Hussain et al. Nutrition. 2012 Oct;28(10):1016-21. (Link goes to abstract)