Previous research has shown that low carb diets may be as effective as low fat diets, or more so, in helping people without diabetes lose weight, cut harmful triglycerides, and boost levels of "good" HDL cholesterol, McLaughlin and her team explain in the journal Diabetes Care.

To understand whether diet type might influence its effectiveness in people with diabetes, they randomly assigned 29 overweight people with type 2 diabetes to a 60 percent carbohydrate, 25 percent fat and 15 percent protein diet or a regimen including 40 percent carbohydrate, 45 percent fat, and 15 percent protein.

Four months later, men and women in the low fat diet group had lost 7 kilograms (15.4 lbs), compared to 5.9 kilograms (13 lbs) in those in the low carb diet group -- not a statistically significant difference. Both groups showed similar reductions in several measures of blood sugar, triglyceride levels, and insulin levels.

In a previous study, the researchers note, they found that people with insulin resistance but not full-blown diabetes fared better on a low carb diet, with greater reductions in "bad" LDL cholesterol, triglycerides and insulin levels.

But the current findings suggest, they add, that the variation in levels of carbohydrates, fats and protein investigated in the current study may be less relevant than the benefits of weight loss in itself for people who have type 2 diabetes. They call for further research to confirm their findings.

Diabetes Care, July 2007.

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DID YOU KNOW:
Obesity Rates Continue to Climb in the United States: The U.S. obesity prevalence increased from 13 percent to 32 percent between the 1960s and 2004, according to researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Center for Human Nutrition. 66% of U.S. adults were overweight or obese in 2003-2004.   Women 20–34 years old had the fastest increase rate of obesity and overweight.  80% of black women aged 40 years or over are overweight; 50% are obese.  Asians have a lower obesity prevalence when compared to other ethnic groups. However, Asians born in the United States are four times more likely to be obese than their foreign-born counterparts. Less educated people have a higher prevalence of obesity than their counterparts, with the exception of black women.  16% of children and adolescents are overweight and 34% are at risk of becoming overweight in 2003-2004. See this week’s Item #

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