Low-Fat Diet Safe for Weight Loss by Diabetics
September 9, 2004
A low-fat diet promotes weight loss in people with type 2 diabetes without unfavorable alterations in blood lipids or glucose control, according to a new report.
Although a low-fat, high-complex carb diet has become
accepted for helping type 2 diabetics lose
weight, the researchers explain in the American
Journal of Clinical Nutrition, recent controversy has
focused on whether a high-monounsaturated fat diet might
avoid the possible effects of a high-carbohydrate diet
in raising blood fats and glucose.
Dr. William E. Connor and colleagues from Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, Oregon investigated the pros and cons of a 6-week, low-fat diet or a high-monounsaturated fat (high-mono) diet in 11 patients with type 2 diabetes.
The low-fat diet led to a significant weight loss, the team found, whereas the high-mono diet did not. Subjects assigned to the low-fat diet consumed 212 fewer kilocalories daily than did those assigned to the high-mono diet.
"I would think the differences would become more pronounced with longer adherence to the low fat diet," Connor told Reuters Health.
Both diets similarly reduced total, LDL-, and HDL-cholesterol concentrations, and glucose control did not differ between the two, the researchers found. Also, the low-fat diet did not cause the blood levels of triglycerides to increase.
The results are in line with "older studies and current studies showing the benefit of a low-fat, high-fiber, high-carbohydrate diet in diabetics," Connor concluded.
Source:www.reuters.com
|
