Scientists from Hamad Medical Corporation and elsewhere found a keto diet may reduce blood sugar and body weight better than a low-carb diet.
Diabetes has become a worldwide public health burden and a big cause of death.
The most common type of diabetes is type 2 diabetes, which is estimated to have a prevalence of 1 in 10 adults living with diabetes in the United States.
The risk factors for type 2 diabetes are obesity and being overweight. Therefore, the most important strategy used to manage type 2 diabetes is weight loss.
The dietary therapies used to manage type 2 diabetes are ketogenic (keto) and low-carbohydrate (low-carb) diets.
Currently, the difference between the two diets has not been fully confirmed.
In the current study, researchers examined the effectiveness of keto and low-carb diets on blood sugar and weight control.
They reviewed 15 published studies and showed that low-carb diets had a greater reduction in blood sugar than other diets.
Similarly, a strong decrease in blood sugar was found in patients eating keto diets compared to those who consumed the control diets.
The team also found that the keto diets strongly impacted weight loss more than the control diets.
The results showed that keto diets were more effective in reducing blood sugar and body weight than a low-carbohydrate diet.
Therefore, the team summarized that the keto diet is a more effective dietary therapy.
However, there is a need to balance the weight loss and blood sugar control benefits obtained from the keto diet with the increased heart disease risks for patients with type 2 diabetes.
The research was published in Cureus and conducted by Hany A Zaki et al.
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