Diabetes is a disorder of carbohydrate metabolism. The body is not able to use sugars effectively and glucose builds up in the blood. These high levels of blood glucose cause many of the complications we associate with diabetes. Some doctors are having great success using low-carbohydrate diets to treat diabetes. It certainly makes sense that reducing carbs in the diet would be helpful in a disorder where the body has difficulty processing it.
This is exactly what we have always said, and indeed what we found in our obesity study. Now there is mounting evidence that a low-carb diet can be helpful to Type 2 diabetics in a variety of ways - weight loss, reduction of blood glucose and dramatic decrease in triglycerides.
This low-carb message is not what we are presently getting from the Australian Diabetes Association - quite the contrary. The good news is that there may be changes in the 2008 American Diabetes Association Guidelines. This will be great as we take our cues from them.