In people with type 2 diabetes, eating diets high in monounsaturated fats or high in carbohydrates can lead to better insulin sensitivity, mainly because these diets cause weight loss, not because of...

Pro

Against

Mechanism

Synthesis from 1 study

How it works

When people with type 2 diabetes lose weight, fat builds up less inside their muscles and liver. This lets insulin do its job better, so the body doesn’t need to make as much of it to keep blood sugar under control. It doesn’t matter whether the weight loss came from eating more fat or more...

Most probable mechanism

In Simple Terms

When a person loses weight, fat stored in the wrong places—like inside muscle and liver cells—goes down. This lets insulin work better to pull sugar out of the blood, so less insulin is needed to keep blood sugar normal.

Causal chain

Calorie restriction leads to a reduction in total body fat mass, particularly visceral and ectopic fat depots.

Verified by multiple studies

which leads to

Reduction in ectopic lipid accumulation in skeletal muscle and liver decreases intracellular diacylglycerol and ceramide levels.

Supported by evidence

which leads to

Lower diacylglycerol and ceramide levels reduce activation of protein kinase C isoforms and inflammatory pathways that interfere with insulin receptor substrate phosphorylation.

Supported by evidence

which leads to

Restored insulin receptor signaling enhances glucose transporter type 4 translocation to the cell membrane in muscle and suppresses hepatic glucose production.

Supported by evidence

which leads to

Improved insulin action in peripheral tissues reduces the demand for pancreatic insulin secretion, lowering fasting insulin concentrations and HOMA-IR.

Verified by multiple studies

Evidence from Studies

Supporting (1)

Community contributions welcome

One-Year Comparison of a High–Monounsaturated Fat Diet With a High-Carbohydrate Diet in Type 2 Diabetes

Randomized Controlled Trial

Human

2009 Feb

Contradicting (0)

Community contributions welcome

No contradicting evidence found

Gold Standard Evidence Needed

According to GRADE and EBM methodology, here is what ideal scientific evidence would look like to definitively prove or disprove this specific claim, ordered from strongest to weakest evidence.

Source Study

One-Year Comparison of a High–Monounsaturated Fat Diet With a High-Carbohydrate Diet in Type 2 Diabetes

Score: 63

DOI: 10.2337/dc08-0687

Similar Assertions

For people with type 2 diabetes, how closely they follow a reduced-calorie diet matters more for losing weight and reducing body fat than whether their diet is higher in fats or carbohydrates.

80%

In middle-aged people who are overweight, eating fewer carbs and more fat for 15 weeks might help their body respond better to insulin, while cutting calories on a low-fat diet could actually make insulin work worse — and these changes happen even if both groups lose about the same amount of weight.

80%

In adults who are overweight or obese and have type 2 diabetes, eating a low-calorie diet rich in monounsaturated fats for one year leads to about the same improvements in weight, waist size, body fat, blood sugar, and blood pressure as eating a low-calorie diet rich in carbohydrates, even though the types of fats and carbs differ.

79%

If you're middle-aged and your body doesn't respond well to insulin, cutting carbs and eating more fat might help you lose belly fat better than a low-fat diet. But if your body handles insulin normally, both diets work about the same for fat loss.

78%

If you're overweight and have type 2 diabetes, losing the same amount of weight helps reduce fat around your pancreas—but eating fewer carbs and more protein makes that fat reduction about one-third smaller than eating a standard diabetes-friendly diet, which suggests what you eat matters, not just how much you lose.

77%