HEALTH NEWS

Study Title:

Keto diets: good, bad or ugly?

Study Abstract

Type 2 diabetes is a rapidly growing disease carrying potentially devastating complications. Despite its apparent inexorable increase, type 2 diabetes can be reversible with weight loss (Lean et al. 2018). Current official dietary recommendations for diabetes are generally to adjust calorie intake to control energy balance/body weight, limit fat (especially saturated) and sugar but not to restrict carbohydrates with advice to aim for 40–60% of total calories as the latter. Conversely, low carbohydrate diets, particularly ketogenic diets, which are low enough in carbohydrates to induce ketosis (typically <30 g carbohydrates daily; termed ‘keto diets’), continue to grow in popularity in the general population. Many report significant weight loss with low carbohydrate diets and it is hardly surprising that some with diabetes become frustrated with attempts to control weight and blood glucose on conventional diets and turn to these. Additionally, in type 1 diabetes, lower carbohydrate intake might reduce the potential for error when calculating insulin doses based on carbohydrate intake.