|
|
Nutrition Volume 31, Issue 1,
January 2015, Pages 1–13
Dietary carbohydrate restriction
as the first approach in diabetes
management: Critical review and evidence base
·
Richard D. Feinman, Ph.D.a, , ,
·
Wendy K. Pogozelski, Ph.D.b,
·
Arne Astrup, M.D.c,
·
Richard K. Bernstein, M.D.d,
·
Eugene J. Fine, M.S., M.D.e,
· Eric
C. Westman, M.D., M.H.S.f,
Highlights
•We present major evidence for low-carbohydrate diets as
first
approach for diabetes.
•Such diets reliably
reduce high blood glucose, the most salient feature of diabetes.
•Benefits do not require
weight loss although nothing is better for weight reduction.
•Carbohydrate-restricted
diets reduce or eliminate need for medication.
•There are no side
effects comparable with those seen in intensive pharmacologic treatment.
Abstract
The inability of current recommendations
to control the epidemic
of diabetes, the
specific failure of the prevailing low-fat diets to improve obesity,
cardiovascular risk, or general health and the persistent reports of some
serious side effects of commonly prescribed diabetic medications, in combination with the
continued success of low-carbohydrate
diets in the treatment of diabetes and metabolic syndrome without significant
side effects, point to the need for a reappraisal of dietary guidelines. The benefits of
carbohydrate restriction in diabetes are immediate and well documented.
Concerns about the efficacy and safety are long term and conjectural rather
than data driven. Dietary carbohydrate restriction reliably reduces high blood
glucose, does not require weight loss (although is still best for weight loss),
and leads to the reduction or
elimination of medication. It has never shown side effects comparable with
those seen in many drugs. Here we present 12 points of evidence supporting the
use of low-carbohydrate diets as the first approach to treating type 2 diabetes
and as the most effective adjunct to pharmacology in type 1. They represent the
best-documented, least controversial results. The insistence on long-term
randomized controlled trials as the only kind of data that will be accepted is
without precedent in science. The seriousness of diabetes requires that we
evaluate all of the evidence that is available. The 12 points are sufficiently
compelling that we feel that the burden of proof rests with those who are
opposed.
|
|
CONDEBNSED BY JK
Point 1. Hyperglycemia is the most salient feature of diabetes.
Dietary carbohydrate restriction has the greatest effect on decreasing blood
glucose levels
Both type 1 and type 2 diabetes are defects in the
response to food, particularly to carbohydrates. The associated
hyperglycemia is both the most characteristic symptom and the cause of
downstream sequelae including insulin effects and generation of advanced
glycation end
products (AGEs).
The most obvious glycation product, hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) is widely taken as diagnostic. Glycemic control remains the
primary target of therapy in patients with type 1 and type 2 diabetes. It is
universally accepted that dietary carbohydrate is the main dietary determinant
of blood glucose [7] and restriction shows the greatest
reduction in postprandial and overall glucose concentrations as well as HbA1c[3], [6], [8], [9], [10], [11], [12], [13] and [14]. Whereas defects in repression
of gluconeogenesis and glycogenolysis are the major causes of hyperglycemia [8] and [15], carbohydrate is by far the
greatest dietary contributor to blood sugar rises and, as expected, dietary
carbohydrate restriction reliably reduces glucose profile.
Hussain et al. [14], for example, compared
a VLCKD with a
low-calorie diet over a 24-wk period in 102 diabetic and 261 nondiabetic
individuals. As shown in Figure 1,
blood glucose dropped more dramatically in the VLCKD group than in those given
the low-calorie diet. In the patients with type 2 diabetes, however, after
24 wk, the average blood glucose level was approximately 1 mM lower
than in the low-calorie diet group. More significantly, the VLCKD group
approached normal blood sugar levels after 24 wk, whereas the low-calorie
group's blood glucose concentration leveled out at 16 wk and remained
elevated. In the normal patients, blood glucose was already at normal levels,
and the VLCKD produced only a small effect. [Confounding variable is that on a
low calorie diet, dieters typically cut back on the high sugar items of drinks,
deserts, beer, fruits, and candies; thus improving their HbA1c through
reduction sugars).
[Note:P because
glycation
damages Hemoglobin A through glycation, it damages all other proteins and by extension
other compounds in the body. The lower
the diet in carbs the lower the damage.]
Point 2.
During the epidemics of obesity and type 2 diabetes, caloric increases have
been due almost entirely to increased carbohydrates
Data from
the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (NHANES) [16] indicate a large increase in
carbohydrates as the major contributor to caloric excess in the United States
from 1974 to 2000
Point 3.
Benefits of dietary carbohydrate restriction do not require weight loss.
Given the difficulties that most people have
losing weight, this factor alone provides an obvious advantage to
low-carbohydrate diets.
Point 4.
Although weight loss is not required for benefit, no dietary intervention is
better than carbohydrate restriction for weight loss
Point 5.
Adherence to low-carbohydrate diets in people with type 2 diabetes is at least
as good as adherence to any other dietary interventions and is frequently
significantly better.
Point 6.
Replacement of carbohydrate with protein is generally beneficial
Point 7.
Dietary total and saturated fat do not correlate with risk for cardiovascular
disease
Point 8.
Plasma saturated fatty acids are controlled by dietary carbohydrate more than
by dietary lipids
Point 9. The best predictor of microvascular
and, to a lesser extent, macrovascular complications in patients with type 2
diabetes, is glycemic control (HbA1c)
Point 10.
Dietary carbohydrate restriction is the most effective method (other than
starvation [fasting]) of reducing serum TGs and increasing high-density
lipoprotein
Point 11.
Patients with type 2 diabetes on carbohydrate-restricted diets reduce and
frequently eliminate medication. People with type 1 usually require lower
insulin
Point 12.
Intensive glucose lowering by dietary carbohydrate restriction has no side
effects comparable to the effects of intensive pharmacologic treatment
The ACCORD (Action to
Control Cardiovascular Disease in Diabetes) trial was halted because of deaths
from CVD [85].
After 3.5 y of follow-up, there were 257 deaths in the intensive-therapy
group compared with 203 in the standard-therapy group (hazard ratio, 1.22; 95%
CI, 1.01–1.46; P = 0.04).
Hypoglycemia requiring assistance and weight gain >10 kg were more
frequent in the intensive-therapy group (P < 0.001).
The results were interpreted as showing “a previously unrecognized harm of
intensive glucose lowering in high-risk patients with type 2 diabetes.” Results
were reported as such in the popular media. Logically, however, it is not the
target but the method of trying to attain it. Intensive use of medications in
high-risk patients is a more reasonable explanation. There are numerous
concerns about diabetes medications [85].
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Enter supporting content here
Looking for a topic, use Google Internal
Search Engine
INTERNAL SITE SEARCH ENGINE by Google
|
|
|
|