Dr. Mary C. Gannon and Dr. Frank Q. Nuttall, both from the Center For Diabetes Research at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, wanted to test a theory that you can bring about improvements in patients with type 2 diabetes that do not require weight loss or insulin to control the blood glucose concentration. What they wanted to know was if it was possible to do this by changing the KIND of foods eaten rather than the AMOUNT of food consumed.

For the study, they looked at the protein:carbohydrate:fat ratios of three groups of patients with untreated type 2 diabetes over a 5-week period.

One group had a 15:55:30 ratio (commonly known as the low-fat diet), another group had a 30:40:30 ratio (which closely resembles The Zone diet), and the final group had a 30:20:50 ratio (you know as livin' la vida low-carb).

The 30:40:30 ratio diet saw a moderate but significant decrease in 24-hour integrated blood glucose area and percentage of total glycohemoglobin (%GHb). But, even more exciting, was the 30:20:50 ratio diet group (low-carb) which saw an amazing 38 percent drop in the 24-hour glucose area, which was a reduction in fasting glucose that resemble close to "normal" readings and the %GHb fell more than two percentage points from 9.8% to 7.6%. The 30:30:40 ratio diet saw similar results.

Based on these results, Dr. Gannon and Dr. Nuttall concluded that changes in diet alone could indeed help control diabetes without the need for weight loss or medication.

"Altering the diet composition could be a patient-empowering method of improving the hyperglycemia of type 2 diabetes without weight loss or pharmacologic intervention," the researchers explained.

Take away notes:
“The protein in the low-carb diets that aided the production of insulin in the study participants because protein actually stimulates the production of insulin.”

"If you increase insulin, then you decrease glucose," Dr. Gannon explained at the conference.

“Fats can delay the digestion of carbohydrates which is why consuming fat is so important as part of a healthy eating plan, especially for diabetics who want to control their blood glucose levels.

Since starchy foods are 100% glucose, they are directly responsible for raising blood glucose levels to dangerous levels for type 2 diabetics.”

Source: Diabetes In Control: Nutrition & Metabolism 2006, 3:16