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Old July 18th, 2008, 08:38 PM posted to alt.support.diet.low-carb
Matti Narkia
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Posts: 19
Default Low-carb and Mediterranean diets beat low-fat for weight-loss,lipid changes at two years

Hamburger wrote:

- In the 36 participants with diabetes, only those in the Mediterranean
group had a significant reduction in fasting plasma glucose levels (32.8
mg/dL).

- Hemoglobin A1c rates decreased by 0.4%, 0.5%, and 0.9% in the low-fat,
Mediterranean, and low-carbohydrate groups, respectively.



Funny, these two statements seem to contradict each other...

Good observation. I noticed the same thing and quietly wondered about
it, too. From the

Figure 4. Changes in Biomarkers According to Diet Group and
Presence or Absence of Type 2 Diabetes.
http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/359/3/229/F4

you can see, that fasting plasma glucose reductions of diabetic people
in the Mediterranean diet and low-carb diet groups were very close to
each other at 12 months, -23.6 and -18.1, respectively, but
after that Mediterranean diet group continued downward trend, but
the trend of the low-carb group turned upwards, so that at 24 months
the Mediterranean group was at -32.8, but the low-carb group had 1.2
_increase_. I wonder what happened after 12 months to cause this swing
upwards in the low-carb group? The reduction of HOMA-IR (homeostasis
model assessment of insulin resistance) was also largest in the
Mediterranean group followed by the low-carb group and smallest in
the low-fat group. But why the reduction of HbA1c behaved differently
from fasting plasma glucose and HOMA-IR, so that it was larger in
low-carb group than in the Mediterranean group, is a mystery to me,
too. I wish that the authors had handled this in the Discussion
chapter or elsewhere in the text, but apparently they didn't. Perhaps
people familiar with diabetes could have some kind of explanation or
speculation about this?


--
Matti Narkia

http://ma.gnolia.com/groups/Nutrition