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Very low-calorie diet may help reverse type 2 diabetes
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A very low-calorie diet can help adults with type 2 diabetes reverse their diabetes, and those who keep their weight down may remain free of diabetes, according to study findings published in Diabetes Care.
“What we have shown is that it is possible to reverse your diabetes, even if you have had the condition for a long time, up to around 10 years,” Roy Taylor, MD, FRCP, professor of medicine and metabolism at Newcastle University in the United Kingdom, said in a press release. “If you had the diagnosis for longer than that, then don’t give up hope — major improvement in blood sugar control is possible.”
Roy Taylor
Taylor and colleagues evaluated 30 adults with type 2 diabetes (duration, 0.5-23 years) who followed a very low-calorie diet for 8 weeks to determine the effect of the diet on glucose control.
During the diet, which consisted of three shakes and nonstarchy vegetables totaling 624 kcal/day to 700 kcal/day, weight fell from a mean of 98 kg to 83.8 kg and remained 84.7 kg after 6 months. Forty percent (n = 12) of participants achieved a fasting glucose level of less than 7 mmol/L and were characterized as responders after return to an isocaloric diet; those who did not reach fasting glucose levels of less than 7 mmol/L were characterized as nonresponders.
Compared with nonresponders, responders had a shorter diabetes duration (P = .007) and lower fasting glucose (P < .001) and HbA1c (P = .01) at baseline.
Compared with an HbA1c reduction from 8.4% to 8% in nonresponders, HbA1c reduced from 7.1% to 5.8% in responders (P < .001); HbA1c levels remained constant in both groups at 6 months.
“[Type 2 diabetes] can now be understood to be a metabolic syndrome potentially reversible by substantial weight loss, and this is an important paradigm shift,” the researchers wrote. “Not all people with [type 2 diabetes] will be willing to make the changes necessary, but for those who do, metabolic health may be regained and sustained in just under one-half. The observations carry profound implications for the health of individuals and for the economics of future health care.” – by Amber Cox
Disclosure: Taylor reports receiving lecture fees from Lilly, Novartis and Novo Nordisk and for contribution to running a European Association for the Study of Diabetes workshop from Nestlé.
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