Low carbohydrate diet and glycemic control
Diets containing 50–60% calories from carbohydrates have been the standard recommendation for patients with type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome [33-35]. However, evidence from several epidemiological studies such as the Nurses Health Study [36] and Health Professional Follow-Up Study [37] has linked dietary carbohydrate intake (measured as glycemic load) with risk of type 2 diabetes and CVD. In the Framingham Offspring Study [38], high glycemic index and glycemic loads were positively associated with metabolic syndrome. Prospective cohort studies have also linked carbohydrates with development of diabetes [39,40]. Compelling evidence from clinical and metabolic studies demonstrate worsening of glycemic control and dyslipidemia in diabetics with high carbohydrate diet [3,4,41,42] whereas low carbohydrate diet may reverse these serious metabolic abnormalities [10,27,43-46]
Carbohydrates are the major insulin secretagogues [47] and glycemic control in diabetic subjects is greatly influenced by dietary carbohydrate content. In fact, before the discovery of insulin, dietary carbohydrate restriction was the recommended treatment for diabetes management [48]. While subjects with type 1 diabetes are generally counseled to count dietary carbohydrates and adjust insulin dose accordingly [35], the concept of carbohydrate restriction in type 2 diabetes is not adequately emphasized. High carbohydrate intake is generally recommended, resulting in suboptimal glycemic control and lipoprotein profile, gradually increasing insulin and/or oral hypoglycemic medication requirement and weight gain. On the other hand, restriction of dietary carbohydrates is associated with improvement in glycemic control and other parameters of insulin resistance including body mass and lipid profile[8-10,43,45].
In the analysis of effects of macronutrient composition of diet on glycemic control, it is essential to differentiate the effect of carbohydrate restriction from that of weight loss so as to determine if the diet has beneficial effect on glycemic control independent of weight loss. This has been clarified by short term study in weight stable diabetic patients where carbohydrate restriction resulted in significant decrease (8.1% to 7.3%, p < 0.05) in glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c) compared to a high carbohydrate control diet [46]. In another study by the same group [45] in 8 diabetic men in a randomized 5-week cross over design with a 5-week wash out period, even larger beneficial effects on glycemic control were observed with low carbohydrate intervention (carbohydrate 20%, protein 30% and fat 50%) compared to control diet (carbohydrate 55%, protein 15% and fat 30%). The low carbohydrate diet had lower HbA1c (7.6 % ± 0.3), glucose levels and insulin levels compared to high carbohydrate group (HbA1c 9.8 % ± 0.5) despite similar weight loss with both diets. These data demonstrate that the benefits of low carbohydrate diet on glycemic control are independent of weight loss and are primarily due to carbohydrate reduction.
In a recent study [43] on obese diabetic subjects, a LoCHO diet (20% carbohydrates) was associated with a significant reduction in body weight, BMI, fasting blood glucose and HbA1C at 6 months compared to the high carbohydrate group (60% carbohydrates). Significant decreases in insulin and hypoglycemic medication requirement were also observed in the low carbohydrate diet group. Similar improvements in glycemic control were also reported by Boden et al. [9]. The study of Samaha et al. [10] also reported a decrease in mean fasting plasma glucose (FPG) levels in diabetic subjects with low carbohydrate diet compared to low fat diet group. The decrease in FPG correlated with the weight loss in this study though the one year data did not show any significant difference, likely due to inability to achieve target carbohydrate intake in the LoCHO diet group and to the significant number of dropouts affecting the power of the study to measure a statistically significant difference.
To summarize, the effect of LoCHO diet on glycemic control was significantly greater and occurred independent of weight loss in those studies that were able to achieve and maintain adequate carbohydrate restriction. In other studies, the effect on glycemic control was modest and proportional to the weight loss, and at least comparable to that seen with low fat diet.
In conclusion, low carbohydrate diet is associated with significant improvement in glycemic control and has the potential for reduction in need for exogenous insulin or oral hypoglycemic medications. Increased monounsaturated fatty acid (MUFA) intake and reduction of saturated fat intake may further improve the insulin sensitivity and glycemic control with low carbohydrate diet.