Best Diet for Type-2 Diabetes – Review of 90 Studies

Reference:

Brown A, McArdle P, Taplin J, Unwin D, Unwin J, Deakin T, Wheatley S, Murdoch C, Malhotra A, Mellor D. Dietary strategies for remission of type 2 diabetes: A narrative review. J Hum Nutr Diet. 2021 Jul 29. doi: 10.1111/jhn.12938. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 34323335.

Link: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jhn.12938

A review of 90 studies by a group of specialist dietitians and doctors, supported by the British Dietetic Association and Diabetes UK, pointed out that the two largest, ‘high-quality’ studies used The 1:1 Diet products and they concluded that it was ‘highly-effective’ ‘in achieving [type-2 diabetes] remission and weight loss’.

This study compared the success of several diets in people with diabetes. Their effectiveness in reversing type-2 diabetes was as follows…

Type of Diet                                                                                                       Success Rate

Calorie-restricted diets:                                                                                 5% effective

Mediterranean diet:                                                                                       15% effective

Low-carb diets:                                                                                                 18% effective

Formula Food (like The 1:1 Diet):                                                               36% effective

2 Largest, Highest-Quality Studies (used The 1:1 Diet):                     54% effective

Commentary Overview

Recently, the British Dietetic Association and Diabetes UK convened a group of specialist dietitians and medical practitioners to try to determine what was the best dietary approach to reverse (cause remission of) type-2 diabetes. These experts conducted a ‘critical narrative review’ of over 90 research papers covering international clinical trials and clinical practice data.

At the end of the review, the answer was clear. Two diets worked in a fairly small number of people over the course of one year – Calorie-restricted diets resulted in about five percent remission and the Mediterranean diet resulted in about 15%. Low-carb diets worked a little better still and over a longer term, with almost 18% in remission over two years. However, the clear winner, with twice the rate of remission versus the low-carb diet, was formula food (MRP and TDR) diets. According to the review, these lead to 36% remission over two years.

In fact, in the two studies using products we make (DiRECT and DIADEM-1), the average rate of diabetes remission after one year was almost 55%! I would argue that these substantially-higher success rates are not just due to our excellent products but the result of the way the diet is implemented and the support subjects receive – based upon our Consultant model.

Importantly, this paper states that ‘remission should be considered as a treatment goal’ in people with diabetes. In other words, instead of primarily using medication, which controls blood sugar and symptoms but does not prevent the disease from getting progressively worse, healthcare professionals should seek to reverse the disease, which we now know can be done safely and at a low cost, with formula foods.

QUOTE: A group of specialist dietitians and medical practitioners was convened, supported by the British Dietetic Association and Diabetes UK

Mark’s comments:

‘This paper shows that when it comes to diabetes, the effects of our diet seem to be about twice as effective as the next best dietary approach. It will likely be a long, gradual transition to convince GPs to use nutritionally-complete food products instead of drugs, but I believe that when healthcare professionals have the choice of trying to treat the symptoms of a disease or to try to reverse it, all things being similar, they should try to reverse it.’

AND: A review of 90 studies by a group of specialist dietitians, supported by the British Dietetic Association and Diabetes UK concluded that low-calorie diets that are nutritionally-complete are an ‘effective treatment in achieving [type-2 diabetes] remission and weight loss’ and is also ‘highly-effective’ in North African and Middle Eastern populations. The two ‘high-quality’ and largest studies they used to support these statements used products we supplied and were based upon The 1:1 Diet support.