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 Researchers found that women eating diets high in animal proteins
and low in carbs actually raised their diabetes risk. A low-carb
diet that was heavy in plant-based protein and fat, in contrast,
wasn’t linked to an increased risk of diabetes in the study.
“Our findings suggest that sources of protein and fats should be
considered for a low-carb diet as a way to control blood sugar,”
said lead study author Dr. Cuilin Zhang, a researcher at the
National Institutes of Health in Rockville, Maryland.
The researchers focused on the risk of type 2 diabetes, which is
linked to obesity and aging and happens when the body can’t properly
use or make enough of the hormone insulin to convert blood sugar
into energy.
All of the women in the study had a version of the disease while
they were pregnant known as gestational diabetes, which usually
disappears after delivery but significantly raises the future risk
of developing type 2 diabetes.
That risk appears even higher for women who cut carbs and get most
of their fats and proteins from red meat and other animal sources,
the study found.
“Women with a history of gestational diabetes who follow a
low-carbohydrate dietary pattern may consider consuming plant
sources rather than animal sources of protein and fat to minimize
their future risk of type 2 diabetes,” Zhang said by email.
To understand how diet influences future diabetes risk, Zhang and
colleagues followed about 4,500 women with a history of gestational
diabetes who filled out
dietary surveys starting in 1991 and continuing every four years
through 2001. Based on the results, they sorted the women into five
groups from lowest to highest compliance with diets centered on
reducing carbohydrates and boosting proteins.
Overall, women in the study with the highest compliance to the low-carb
diet were 36 percent more likely to develop diabetes than those with
the lowest adherence.
The researchers also scored the diets based on how much food came
from animal versus plant sources.
The highest amounts of protein and fats from red meat and other
animal sources were linked to a 40 percent greater diabetes risk
than the lowest amounts, according to the results published in
Diabetes Care.
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Women were more likely to be overweight or obese with the highest
amounts of meat in their diets, partly explaining their increased
risk, the authors note.
By comparison, for women with the highest amounts of plant-based
protein and fats in their diet, the increase in risk for diabetes
small and might have been due to chance.
It’s possible that higher intake of dietary animal fat might make it
harder for women to process sugar and increase their risk of
diabetes, the researchers conclude.
Eating a meal rich in animal protein, compared to one heavy in
protein from plants, may also lead to higher concentrations in the
blood of branched-chain amino acids, protein building blocks that
have been linked to an inability to process insulin and an increased
diabetes risk, the authors speculate.
Women who ate the most animal-based protein and fat also tended to
consume the highest amounts of red meat, a food tied to increased
diabetes risk.
One limitation of the current study is that dietary surveys might
not accurately reflect what women ate, the authors concede. It’s
also possible that more health-conscious women who see the doctor
more often are more likely to get a diabetes diagnosis.
Still, the findings emphasize that just because a diet is low-carb
doesn’t make it healthy, said Dr. Deidre Tobias, an epidemiologist
at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard University in Boston.
“A healthful combination of fruits, vegetables, whole grains,
legumes, and perhaps some fish or lean protein can provide a
flexible road map to overall high quality eating,” Tobias said by
email.
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/21zmwQ6 Diabetes Care, online November 17,
2015.
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