Study: Diet reverses diabetes (but don't get excited yet) : LC Research/Media Forum : Active Low-Carber Forums

#1 ^

Sat, Jan-21-17, 08:53

WereBear

Senior Member

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Plan: EpiPaleo/Primal/LowOx
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Study: Diet reverses diabetes (but don't get excited yet)

It looks good at first glance.

Study Shows 100% Pre-Diabetes Remission With High Protein Diet

And in terms of showing that diabetes is reversible with diet, it is a breakthrough. But of course, it's been screwed with, and is something people would find difficult; so when people fail, it is their fault.

Dr. Cate outlines the problems.

Quote:

Here’s my take:

Bariatric surgeons lose. Those bariatric surgeons who claim that only by doing a gastric bypass at the cost of $30K can one cure pre-diabetes can no longer legitimately make that claim.

Calories count but there’s more to it. The fact that both groups lost weight shows that yes calories do count. But the kind of calories plays a big role in where the weight loss comes from.

High carb + low cal is dangerous. The high carb group lost an alarming amount of lean mass, not specified if from bone, muscle or other organs but all are possible, even brain mass loss, and have been shown to decline in other studies. (Personal note: it turns out to be good that I could never white knuckle such a regimen for very long!)

Protein supports lean tissue. The fact that the high protein group gained lean mass suggests they were possibly exercising more than the other group, which would be very interesting if that were the case. Another fascinating possible explanation is that the high protein intake at every meal stimulated muscle growth, per the predictions of Dr Leyman.

Carbs keep LDL up. LDL barely budged in the high carb group, in spite of greater weight loss.

Carbs promote insulin resistance. The markers of insulin sensitivity and resistance barely budged in the high carb group in spite of a degree of weight loss far in excess of the 5% that doctors promise patients will lead to improved health outcomes such as reduced risk of complications of insulin resistance.

…Or maybe protein promotes insulin sensitivity? The high protein diet reduced both markers of oxidative stress quite impressively. Oxidative stress is controlled in part by antioxidant enzyme systems, which are composed of protein and amino acids.

Vegetable oils damage HDL. HDL did not improve because the fats in the diet came primarily from refined vegetable oils, which damage lipoproteins and low HDL is the canary in the coal mine for damaged lipoproteins. If they’d used natural fat sources like butter instead of margarine, I think HDL would have improved more.

The most interesting group went missing. If they’d included a third group with carbs at 100, protein at 80 and allowed the balance to come from natural fat, I think that would have been very interesting.

Low carb science is still the best we have, so far. And those invested in the Lipid Hypothesis still don't want to admit it. They will continue to juggle with the facts so they seem to be right.