Published October 26, 2022
Low-carbohydrate diets are effective at lowering blood sugar in unmedicated prediabetes and diabetes
The A1C test, also known as the hemoglobin A1c test, measures someone’s average blood sugar levels over the past three months. It is frequently used to diagnose or rule out prediabetes and Type 2 diabetes. A normal A1c level is below 5.7%, a level of 5.7% to 6.4% indicates prediabetes, and a level of 6.5% or more indicates diabetes.
Low-carbohydrate diets reduce hemoglobin A1c among patients with treated type 2 diabetes at least as much as low-fat diets, but there have been few studies of the effects of low-carbohydrate diets on A1c among people who have prediabetes or diabetes not treated by medications.
A research team that included Gabriel Uwaifo, MD – senior clinical research scientist and endocrinologist for the Ochsner Diabetes and Weight Management Clinical Research Unit, the Frank Riddick Diabetes Institute and the Department of Endocrinology at Ochsner Medical Center, and associate professor for The University of Queensland Ochsner Clinical School – studied the effect of a low-carbohydrate diet among people with an elevated and untreated A1c level.
From September 2018 to June 2021, the researchers conducted a clinical trial with participants aged 40 to 70 who had A1c levels in the 6-6.9% range who were not on medication. Half of the participants were prescribed a low-carbohydrate diet and received dietary counseling, while the other half consumed their normal diet.
Compared with the usual diet group, the low-carbohydrate diet intervention group had significantly greater 6-month reductions in their A1c levels and their body weight. The study confirmed that low-carbohydrate dietary interventions also lead to improvements in blood sugar control among prediabetic and diabetic individuals not taking blood sugar-lowering medication.
