ISLAMABAD JAN 14 (ONLINE): Compared to a Mediterranean diet, a ketogenic (keto) diet produced more immediate beneficial changes in people with type 2 diabetes during a 12-month study.
However, the keto diet’s relative advantages appeared to wane beyond 6 months. The diets resulted in similar improvements in participants’ health by the end of the study.
The small study, conducted by researchers in Italy and Brazil, and whose findings appeared in the journal Metabolites, recorded short-term improvements in gut microbial diversity, various anthropometric measures, and metabolic indicators.
The keto diet is a weight-loss diet based on the principle that by dramatically limiting the presence of carbohydrates (sugars) available to the body, the body will instead burn away fat for energy. The diet can produce significant weight loss and has been linked to other benefits.
However, the keto diet has also been associated with various serious adverse effects, especially with long-term use, making it difficult to safely study in human subjects.
The Mediterranean diet takes a less radical approach to dieting, emphasizing a balanced approach to nutrition and lifestyle.
Participants in the study were people aged 45 to 65 with obesity who had recently been received a type 2 diabetes diagnosis.
They had not yet begun taking any medication for the condition. At the start of the study, there were 11 participants. By the halfway point, 10 remained, and eight people completed the full year-long trial.
The individuals had been randomly assigned either to a very low-calorie ketogenic diet or to a Mediterranean-type diet. Those in the low-calorie keto group were supplied protein-based meals containing few carbohydrates — less than 30 grams (g) per day.
After 2 months, people in the low-calorie keto group were gradually transitioned to the Mediterranean diet to avoid keto-diet safety issues.
From month 4 onward, both groups followed an Mediterranean diet for the remainder of the study.
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