Restricted-Carbohydrate Diets in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes: A Meta-Analysis
Abstract
Many current popular weight-loss diets advocate restricting carbohydrates, but risks and benefits of these diets for patients with diabetes is unclear. We searched for articles published in English between 1980 and April 2006 regarding carbohydrate-restricted diets that included and reported separate results for adult, nonpregnant patients with type 2 diabetes. Articles were limited to studies completed in the United States and Canada. Available data on study design; carbohydrate composition of diet; duration of diet; and the outcomes of weight, lipid levels (total, low-density lipoprotein and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and triglycerides), hemoglobin A1c percent and/or fasting glucose were extracted. A total of 56 studies or reviews were evaluated. Thirteen studies met our inclusion criteria. Meta-regression analyses show that hemoglobin A1c, fasting glucose, and some lipid fractions (triglycerides) improved with lower carbohydrate-content diets. Overall effect on weight was equivocal among the studies evaluated in this meta-analysis. Randomized, controlled studies of restricted-carbohydrate diets in patients with diabetes need to be conducted in order to evaluate the overall sustainability of outcomes and long-term safety.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Criticisms of low-carbohydrate diets relate to poor adherence and long-term sustainability.
“Criticisms of low-carbohydrate diets relate to poor adherence and long-term sustainability (25, 26, 28).”
Systematic reviews corroborate the effectiveness of a low-carbohydrate diet for T2D.
“Systematic reviews also corroborate the effectiveness of a low-carbohydrate diet for T2D (25, 26)”
No citation lists for this paper
No citation lists for this paper yet — checked again daily.
References 50 · Cited by 171
- Authors
- Kirk, J. K., Graves, D. E., Craven, T. E., Lipkin, E. W., Austin, M., & Margolis, K. L.
- Affiliations
- Wake Forest University Health Sciences (US)
- Corresponding author
- Kirk, Julienne K.
- Venue
- Journal of the American Dietetic Association
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2008-01
- Volume
- 108
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 91-100
- ISSN
- 0002-8223 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2085343029
- Cited by
- 171
- References
- 50
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 7 · 2022: 8 · 2021: 8 · 2020: 8 · 2019: 13 · 2018: 11 · 2017: 10 · 2016: 8 · 2015: 13 · 2014: 9 · 2013: 18 · 2012: 16
- FWCI
- 0.76
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of the American Dietetic Association (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institutes of Health (n01hc95180-24-0-1)
- National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (HC95180)
- National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (DK-35816, P30DK035816)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology › Diet and metabolism studies
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology › Dietary Effects on Health
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism › Diabetes Management and Research
- Keywords
- type 2 diabetes, low-carbohydrate diet, weight loss, glycemic control, HbA1c, fasting blood glucose, serum lipids, triglycerides, cholesterol, diet sustainability
- MeSH terms
- Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2, Dietary Carbohydrates, Female, Glycated Hemoglobin, Humans, Male, Safety, Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic, Treatment Outcome, Lipid Metabolism, Diet, Carbohydrate-Restricted
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
