Walk-ins are welcomed, latest appointment will be taken at 4:40pm.
Skip to main content

How a Low-Carb Diet Might Aid People With Type 1 Diabetes

Andrew has Type 1 diabetes, and six years ago, in order to control his blood sugar levels, his parents put him on a low-carbohydrate, high-protein diet. His mother makes him recipes with diabetic-friendly ingredients that won’t spike his blood sugar, like pizza with a low-carb, almond-flour crust; homemade bread with walnut flour instead of white flour; and yogurt topped with blueberries, raspberries and nuts.

Andrew’s diet requires careful planning — he often takes his own meals with him to school. But he and his parents say it makes it easier to manage his condition and, since starting the diet, his blood sugar control has markedly improved and he has not had any diabetes complications requiring trips to the hospital.

“I do this so that I can be healthy,” Andrew, who lives with his parents in Jacksonville, Fla., said of his diet. “When I eventually move out and go to college, I’m going to keep up what I’m doing because I’m on the right path.”

Most diabetes experts do not recommend low-carb diets for people with Type 1 diabetes, especially children. Some worry that restricting carbs can lead to dangerously low blood sugar levels, a condition known as hypoglycemia, and potentially stunt a child’s growth. But a new study published in the journal Pediatrics on Monday suggests otherwise.

It found that children and adults with Type 1 diabetes who followed a very low-carb, high-protein diet for an average of just over two years — combined with the diabetes drug insulin at smaller doses than typically required on a normal diet — had “exceptional” blood sugar control. They had low rates of major complications, and children who followed it for years did not show any signs of impaired growth.

The study found that the participants’ average hemoglobin A1C a long-term barometer of blood sugar levels, fell to just 5.67 percent. An A1C under 5.7 is considered normal, and it is well below the threshold for diabetes, which is 6.5 percent.

“Their blood sugar control seemed almost too good to be true,” said Belinda Lennerz, the lead author of the study and an instructor in the division of pediatric endocrinology at Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School. “It’s nothing we typically see in the clinic for Type 1 diabetes.”

The new study comes with an important caveat. It was an observational study, not a randomized trial with a control group. The researchers recruited 316 people, 130 of them children whose parents gave consent, from a Facebook group dedicated to low-carb diets for diabetes, called TypeOneGrit, then reviewed their medical records and contacted their medical providers.

While it was not a clinical trial, the study is striking because it highlights a community of patients who have been “extraordinarily successful” at controlling their diabetes with a very low-carb diet, said Dr. David M. Harlan, the co-director of the Diabetes Center of Excellence at the UMass Memorial Medical Center, who was not involved in the study. “Perhaps the surprise is that for this large number of patients it is much safer than many experts would have suggested.”

“I’m excited to see this paper,” Dr. Harlan added. . “It should reopen the discussion about whether this is something we should be offering our patients as a therapeutic approach.”

The authors of the paper cautioned that the findings should not lead patients to alter their diabetes management without consulting their doctors, and that large clinical trials will be necessary to determine whether this approach should be used more widely.

“We think the findings point the way to a potentially exciting new treatment option,” said Dr. David Ludwig, a co-author of the study and a pediatric endocrinologist at Boston Children’s Hospital who has written popular books about low-carb diets. “However, because our study was observational, the results should not, by themselves, justify a change in diabetes management.”

About 1.25 million Americans have Type 1 diabetes, which occurs when the pancreas does not produce enough insulin to regulate blood sugar levels. Managing the condition requires administering insulin throughout the day, especially when consuming meals high in carbs, which raise blood sugar more than other nutrients. Over time, chronically elevated blood sugar can lead to nerve and kidney damage and cardiovascular disease.

The standard approach for people with Type 1 diabetes is to match carb intake with insulin. But the argument for restricting carbs is that it keeps blood sugar more stable and requires less insulin, resulting in fewer highs and lows. The approach has not been widely studied or embraced for Type 1 diabetes, but some patients swear by it.

TypeOneGrit has about 3,000 members on Facebook who ascribe to a program devised by Dr. Richard Bernstein, an 84-year-old physician with Type 1 diabetes. His book, “Dr. Bernstein’s Diabetes Solution,” recommends limiting daily carb intake to about 30 grams, the amount in a sweet potato or about four or five cups of cooked broccoli.

Dr. Bernstein argues that the fewer carbs consumed, the easier it is to stabilize blood sugar with insulin. He recommends foods like nonstarchy vegetables, seafood, nuts, meat, yogurt, tofu and recipes made with almond flour, sugar substitutes and other low-glycemic ingredients. His plan emphasizes protein intake, which he says is especially important for growing children.


By Anahad O’Connor

You Might Also Enjoy...

The Importance of Sunscreen

As we spend more time outdoors during the warm summer months, it's important to protect our skin from the harmful effects of the sun.
How NightLase® Can Help With Snoring

How NightLase® Can Help With Snoring

If your snoring wakes up everyone in your household, you need help — and so do they. Find out how a simple laser treatment can have everyone within earshot sleeping like babies.
Five Signs You Could Be Suffering From Low Testosterone

Five Signs You Could Be Suffering From Low Testosterone

You can’t turn on the TV or scroll through your social media feed without seeing an ad for a product that promises to boost your testosterone, but how do you know if you have low T? And what should you do if you do? Find out here.
Too many supplement options!

GREAT! More Things To Take

Deciding whether to take dietary supplements and which ones to take is a serious matter – I’m not even exaggerating!