The American Diabetes Association (ADA) & the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) have just released their new joint position statement which includes approval of low carbohydrate diets for use in the management of Type 2 Diabetes (T2D) in adults. This comes on the heels of Diabetes Australia having recently released an updated position statement in August titled Low Carbohydrate Eating for People with Diabetes (you can read more about that here).

This is huge!

By releasing this updated joint position statement, the American Diabetes Association (ADA) and the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) indicate that they now recognize a low carbohydrate diet as safe and effective lifestyle management of T2D in adults.

In the newly released joint position statement that was published online ahead of print on October 4, 2018 in the journal Diabetes Care, it was stated that the new recommendations were based on “a systematic evaluation of the literature since 2014” [1]. That is, approval for the use of low carbohydrate diets is based on current research.

A Full Range of Therapeutic Options

The new joint ADA & EASD position statement endorses “a full range of therapeutic options” including lifestyle management, medication and obesity management and indicate that:

“An individual program of Medical Nutrition Therapy (MNT) should be offered to all patients”.

The new joint position statement elaborates that Medical Nutrition Therapy (MNT) is made up of an education component and a support component to enable patients to adopt healthy eating patterns with the goal of “managing blood glucose and cardiovascular risk factors.” The goal is to reduce risk for Diabetes-related complications while preserving the pleasure of eating” with the two basic dimensions of MNT including diet quality and energy restriction.

Diet Quality and Eating Patterns

The joint American and European position paper on the management of T2D states clearly;

“There is no single ratio of carbohydrate, proteins and fat intake that is optimal for every person with Type 2 Diabetes.”

but

“Instead, there are many good options and professional guidelines usually recommend individually selected eating patterns that emphasize foods of demonstrated health benefit, that minimize foods of demonstrated

harm and that accommodate patient preference and metabolic needs , with the goal of identifying healthy dietary habits that are feasible and sustainable .”

Included in this category are;

the Mediterranean Diet

the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) Diet

Low Carbohydrate Diets

Vegetarian Diets

The joint position paper noted that;

“Low-carbohydrate diets (<26% of total energy) produce substantial reductions in HbA1c at 3 months and 6 months with diminishing effects at 12 and 24 months.”

Unfortunately the paper failed to note that the one-year Virta study data that reported that HbA1C continued to decline at one year but yes, a diminished rates.

The new joint ADA and European Association for the study of Diabetes also noted that moderate carbohydrate restriction was of no benefit;

“no benefit of moderate carbohydrate restriction (26–45%) was observed.”

The paper acknowledged that there are many different types of “low carbohydrate diets’ and the particular benefits of a low – carbohydrate Mediterranean eating pattern was in reducing the requirement for medication over 4 years;

“people with new-onset Diabetes assigned to a low carbohydrate Mediterranean eating pattern were 37% less likely to require glucose-lowering medications over 4 years compared with patients assigned to a low-fat diet”.

The paper outlines that the primary physiological actions depend on which diet is followed.

It lists advantages of using diet, including a low carbohydrate diet in the management of T2D symptoms in adults is that dietary changes are inexpensive and have no side effects .

Disadvantages of using diet, including a low carbohydrate diet in the management of T2D symptoms in adults is that it requires instruction , motivation , lifelong behaviour change and may pose some social barriers .

Yes, a well-designed low carbohydrate diet does require instruction, but for those that have the motivation to avoid the chronic health complications of Diabetes through diet and who are committed to maintaining the behaviour change, I can help!

Perhaps you’re curious about the types of services that I provide both in person in my Coquitlam, British Columbia office and via Distance Consultation (Skype, telephone)? You can find out more under the Services tab or in the Shop. If you have questions regarding getting started or would like more information, please send me a note using the Contact Me form above and I will be happy to reply as soon as I’m able to.

To your good health!

Joy

P.S. Read here why the ADA and EASD classifying a low carb diet as Medical Nutrition Therapy is so significant!

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