Duel Of The Diets: Is Keto Better Than Mediterranean Diet For Blood Sugar Control?

Diets play a big role in your health. One of the first things you are told to change when your health takes the turn for the worse is your diet. With the rise of social media, people now have access to a lot of information like different diets and food items and even ingredients they should add to their daily intake. And there are a few diets that have risen above the others in terms of popularity, benefits and accessibility, keto and mediterranean. But which one is better? And should you stick to just one throughout your diet journey? While mediterranean diet has a wider variety of food items cooking techniques, many people believe that keto falls short when it comes to nutrition density. But that is not true as a well-organized keto diet includes all types of nutrition and vitamins your body needs. A recent, small study looked at how two diets, keto and Mediterranean, affected people newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. While the keto diet seemed better at first, these good effects mostly faded after six months.

This study was done with a small group of people. It started with 11 people, but only 8 finished the whole year. All the people were between 45 and 65 years old, had obesity, and were recently told they had type 2 diabetes. Importantly, they weren't taking any diabetes medicine yet, so the researchers could see how the diets alone affected them. Some people were randomly put on a very low-carb keto diet, and others were put on a Mediterranean diet.

Keto Vs. Mediterranean Diet

The study showed that the keto diet led to quicker improvements in some important health measures compared to the Mediterranean diet. People on the keto diet saw bigger drops in their HbA1c levels, which shows long-term blood sugar control. They also had larger decreases in their BMI and waist size. These early benefits suggest the keto diet might be good for quickly improving health in the early stages of type 2 diabetes. These positive changes were seen within the first six months.

Does Keto Have A Time Limit?

Even though the keto diet seemed better than the Mediterranean diet in the first six months, these benefits mostly disappeared by the end of the year. The big improvements in HbA1c, BMI, and waist size in the keto group, were eventually similar to the Mediterranean diet group's results by the end of the year. This suggests that the keto diet, which is very strict, might be hard to stick to for a long time, and the early benefits might not last. By the end of the study, both diets had helped people's health in similar ways, meaning the Mediterranean diet, while slower to work at first, gave similar long-term results without the problems that can come with staying on keto.

Which One Is Better For Long Term?

Experts usually think the Mediterranean diet is a safer and more sustainable way to manage type 2 diabetes, because it focuses on a balanced way of eating and living. They warn us about possible health problems with keto diets, especially if you stay on them for a long time. These problems include not getting enough vitamins and minerals because you're cutting out many foods, possible stress on the liver and kidneys because of how the body breaks down fats and proteins, constipation from not eating enough fiber, and even mood changes and trouble thinking because the brain is using ketones instead of sugar for energy.

This small study shows that while the keto diet might give you a quick boost in health if you have type 2 diabetes, these benefits don't usually last. Because of the possible risks and because there are safer and more sustainable diets like the Mediterranean diet, it's usually better to take a balanced and personalized approach to eating to manage type 2 diabetes.