According to a recent study published in the journal Diabetes Care, eating a low-carbohydrate diet may lower the risk of dying early in persons with type 2 diabetes, including dying from cancer and cardiovascular disease.

The benefits and sustainability of a low-carb diet for diabetics have been highly contested; the answer may, in part, depend on the sort of low-carb diet you adhere to. There is now proof that at least certain low-carb diets might have significant positive effects on health. According to a recent study, type 2 diabetics who followed a low-carb vegan diet lost weight and had better blood glucose control.


The Benefits Of Eating A Low Carb Diet

A low-carb diet has also been demonstrated to benefit diabetics with blood glucose management and may delay the onset of diabetes in those individuals. A low-carb, high-fat diet reduced indicators of liver damage and improved blood glucose management in adults with type 2 diabetes, according to another research. 

A low-carb diet has also been linked to improved kidney function in type 2 diabetics, and it may support diabetes remission (maintaining normal blood sugar levels without the need of glucose-lowering medications). 

In the most recent study, researchers examined food habits among participants in the Nurses' Health Study and Health Professionals Follow-up Study, a sizable general health study. Based on the percentage of their total calories that were from carbohydrates, as revealed by dietary recall surveys, each of the 10,101 patients with type 2 diabetes was assigned an overall low-carb diet score. Based on the different items they ate, they were also assigned distinct vegetable, animal, good, and harmful low-carb diet scores.

 After accounting for participant variables other than nutrition (such as age, sex, and health history), the researchers evaluated the association between these scores and the probability of passing away after an average follow-up time of 13.8 years.


Lower Risk Of Early Death Associated With Plant-Based Low-Carb Diet

The researchers discovered that individuals had a 13% lower chance of passing away during the follow-up period for each 10-point increase in their total low-carb diet score. With regard to the more precise low-carb diet ratings, an increase of 10 points was associated with a 24% decrease in mortality risk for veggie low-carb diets and a 22% decrease in mortality risk for healthy low-carb diets. 

Neither the animal low-carb diet score nor the unhealthy low-carb diet score were significantly correlated with the chance of passing away throughout the observational period.


Conclusion

The researchers came to the conclusion that people with type 2 diabetes were at a lower risk of passing away early, whether from cardiovascular disease or cancer, when they followed a low-carb diet, and more particularly, a healthy low-carb diet that prioritizes plant foods. 

"Our study provides the first empirical evidence on how low-carb diets can help manage the progression of existing diabetes," said study author Yang Hu, a research associate in the Department of Nutrition at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, in a news release on the study. 

Yang Hu added that avoiding highly refined carbohydrates may be the most crucial component of a healthy eating pattern for people with type 2 diabetes.