High-carb diets cause health problems for diabetics

• Dr Abhimanyu Garg, professor and chief of the division of nutrition and metabolic disease, led a study to investigate the effect of a carbohydrate-rich diet on the blood pressure, compared to one rich in monounsaturated fatty acids.
• High blood pressure (130/80 mmHG or more) amongst diabetics is a major cause for concern because it is linked to increased risk of heart attack.
• About 73 percent of adults with diabetes have blood pressure, and heart disease and stroke account for about 65 percent of deaths amongst all diabetics.
• However the disease can also lead to low blood pressure in some sufferers due to damage to the nerves that supply blood vessels, which can cause faintness and anxiety.
• Low blood pressure can cause faintness and dizziness, and there is some suggestion that it may be linked to tiredness, depression and anxiety.
• Over an initial six-week period, the 42 participants, all type-2 diabetes sufferers, followed either an isoenergic high carbohydrate diet consisting of 55 percent energy as carbohydrate, 30 percent as fat and ten percent as monounsaturated fat, or a high-monounsaturated fat diet.
• The total calories for each diet were the same.
• The two groups then switched and received the other diet for a further six week, after which twenty-one patients continued with their second diet for an additional eight weeks.
• The eight who continued the high-mono diet for 14-weeks, on the other hand, showed a small reduction in blood pressure of average three mmHg in systolic and four mmHg in diastolic blood pressure, compared to those following the high-carb diet for six weeks.
• "Although the exchange of carbohydrates with monounsaturated fats may not affect blood pressure in the short term, long-term consumption of a high-carbohydrate diet may modestly raise blood pressure in type 2 diabetic patients," wrote the researchers in Diabetes Care (28:2607-2612, 2005).