A randomized clinical trial from Washington University School of Medicine compared three diets in 55 adults with obesity, prediabetes and fatty liver disease. The results were published in Cell Metabolism on August 27.
Participants followed either a low-carbohydrate ketogenic diet, a high-carbohydrate plant-forward diet or a Mediterranean diet for about five months. Everyone received their meals and met weekly with a dietitian.
All three groups lost about 10 percent of their starting weight and improved the way their muscles responded to insulin. The ketogenic group also had larger improvements in liver insulin sensitivity and reduced liver fat by 67 percent, compared with 45 percent in the other two groups.
The study suggests that weight loss helped overall metabolic health, while the type of diet may matter for certain liver and blood-sugar outcomes. The researchers say more work is needed to understand how the findings should guide individual care.
