The incidence of type 2 diabetes, the most common type of diabetes, has skyrocketed as more Americans fit into the overweight or obese category. Being overweight is one of the major risk factors for the disorder, formerly called adult-onset diabetes but now also seen in children. The metabolic diet, designed by Mauro Di Pasquale, M.D., follows a low-carb, high-protein and high-fat diet during the week and a high-carb diet on the weekends. According to Dr. Di Pasquale, this diet can help prevent or treat type 2 diabetes while helping you lose weight.
Definition
You can start the metabolic diet off immediately with low-carb restrictions from the first day or ease into carbohydrate restrictions over several weeks, the diet website states.The low-carb diet allows 30 g of carbohydrate per day during the week, with 50 to 60 percent of your calories from fat and 30 to 40 percent from protein. On the weekend, for a period of 24 to 26 hours, you eat 35 to 60 percent of your calories in the form of carbohydrates.
Actions
Diabetes is often preceded or accompanied by by insulin resistance, a condition where cells no longer respond to insulin, the hormone that helps cells absorb glucose from the bloodstream. According to the metabolic diet website, this diet may help your body maximize its use of insulin. Dr. Di Pasquale's version of the low-carb diet prevents continuous ketosis, a switch from using glucose as the normal source of fuel to burning fat. Some people feel sick and weak following a ketogenic diet, even for a few days. Ketosis can lead to muscle breakdown, which carb "reloading" on the weekend avoids, the website Old School Trainer explains.
Diabetic Benefits
Low-carb diets like the metabolic diet are as effective as low-calorie diets -- if not more so in the short term, at least -- in helping people lose weight, according to the Harvard School of Public Health. In 2008, the American Diabetes Association stated that low-carb diets were a viable alternative for weight loss and blood sugar control in diabetics. A study reported in the September 2004 issue of "Diabetes" compared a carbohydrate-to-protein fat ratio of 55:15:30, a normal diabetic diet, to a diet consisting of a ratio of 20:30:50. Blood sugars dramatically improved when following the lower-carb, higher-fat diet.
Considerations
Since this is not a true low-carb diet, but emphasizes both high protein and fat and high carbs on different days, ask your doctor before starting on it. If you are overweight and have diabetes, finding a plan that helps you lose weight and keep your blood sugars down can help prevent the potentially serious complications of diabetes such as heart, kidney or vascular disease. Work with your doctor to find a successful diet plan and talk with him before starting this diet, which can be very high in both protein and fat, which could be harmful if you already have diabetic-related illness such as kidney disease.
References
- Old School Trainer: The Metabolic Diet
- Diabetes Health; ADA 2009 Recommendations Reaffirm Acceptance of Low Carb Diet; December 2008
- Harvard School of Public Health: Carbohydrates: Good Carbs Guide the Way
- The Metabolic Diet: Pre-Diabetes: Delaying or Preventing Type-2 Diabetes Through Exercise and Diet
- "Diabetes"; Effect of a High-Protein, Low-Carbohydrate Diet on Blood Glucose Control in People With Type 2 Diabetes; Mary Gannon, et al.; September 2004
