Testing the effect of a high fat diet in severe type 2 diabetes - Garg and Unger metabolic ward study from 1988

It's all very well to test the metabolic effects of high-fat diets in RCTs. There are usually beneficial results in type 2 diabetes, but compliance is limited. The trial isn't showing what the diet does, but what effect the advice has on people who may be more or less indifferent to it. In fact, it's amazing these trials produce the positive results they do.
A metabolic ward study involves subjects who follow the diet because they have nothing else to eat; all variables such as exercise are kept constant. Because you don't get huge numbers volunteering for these studies, and the cost is high because of the round-the-clock supervision and testing, the crossover method is normally used. Half the subjects eat the test diet, the other half the control, then they switch over. Results from the end of each period in both groups are averaged.
This is a 1988 study authored by Abhimanyu Garg, Roger Unger and 3 colleagues.

N Engl J Med. 1988 Sep 29;319(13):829-34.

Comparison of a high-carbohydrate diet with a high-monounsaturated-fat diet in patients with non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus.

Garg A1, Bonanome A, Grundy SM, Zhang ZJ, Unger RH

Abstract

We compared a high-carbohydrate diet with a high-fat diet (specifically, a diet high in monounsaturated fatty acids) for effects on glycemic control and plasma lipoproteins in 10 patients with non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM) receiving insulin therapy. The patients were randomly assigned to receive first one diet and then the other, each for 28 days, in a metabolic ward. In the high-carbohydrate diet, 25 percent of the energy was in the form of fat and 60 percent in the form of carbohydrates (47 percent of the total energy was in the form of complex carbohydrates); the high-monounsaturated-fat diet was 50 percent fat (33 percent of the total energy in the form of monounsaturated fatty acids) and 35 percent carbohydrates. The two diets had the same amounts of simple carbohydrates and fiber. As compared with the high-carbohydrate diet, the high-monounsaturated-fat diet resulted in lower mean plasma glucose levels and reduced insulin requirements, lower levels of plasma triglycerides and very-low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (lower by 25 and 35 percent, respectively; P less than 0.01), and higher levels of high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol (higher by 13 percent; P less than 0.005). Levels of total cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol did not differ significantly in patients on the two diets. These preliminary results suggest that partial replacement of complex carbohydrates with monounsaturated fatty acids in the diets of patients with NIDDM does not increase the level of LDL cholesterol and may improve glycemic control and the levels of plasma triglycerides and HDL cholesterol.

Thanks to Ivor Cummings, I have the full-text pdf, and it's very interesting.
The other dietary variables are well controlled for.

The types of fatty acids, if that makes any difference, are also well-matched between diets (low fat diet used corn and palm oils, high fat diet used olive oil, so neither was high omega-3).
The results are fascinating (this is the average from the last week of each period, days 21-28).


Who knew that a urinary glucose output of 142 mg/day was normal on a high-carbohydrate diet in subjects with "non-insulin dependent diabetes mellitus treated with insulin" - to disappear completely on a diet with 50% of calories from olive oil?
Oh, and the base line? That was after a week on the diet recommended by the ADA in 1988, which was the lead-in diet.
What about lipids? They improved too:



What's especially interesting aboout these lipid results is the comparison between this study (second phase T2D) and Garg and Unger's 1992 study of the same diets in mild (first phase) T2D. In mild T2D, a high MUFA diet improved lipids but did not influence insulin sensitivity. This seems consistent with high-carb/high-calorie diets and hyperinsulinaemia in those prone to diabetes driving lipotoxicity, when then produces the phase 2 phenomenon of hyperglycaemia plus hyperlipidaemia by altering the ratio of alpha- to beta- cell sensitivity and activity. Dietary carbohydrate drives fat which drives endogenous glucose.

The authors of the 1988 paper sum up thus:

Abhimanyu Garg has authored this convenient review of all the studies using a high-MUFA diet for Type 2 NIDDM.
It includes this classic line:

 "The improvement in the glycemic profile with high-monounsaturated-fat diets may not be related to changes in insulin sensitivity but to a reduction in the carbohydrate load, which patients with type 2 diabetes may not be able to handle readily because of severe insulin resistance and b cell defects."
Amen.

Of course what we lack is a comparative series of studies with high SFA diets, or indeed diets in the normal range of mixed SFA, MUFA and PUFA. Does the type of fat matter if carbohydrate is low enough? Quite possibly not, at least for the majority. Is 35% carbohydrate low enough to see the full benefit of a high-fat diet? Maybe not, but the results, after only 28 days, were impressive enough.