PhD defence: Sustainability of the effects of lower carbohydrate / higher protein diets

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Sustainability of the effects of lower carbohydrate / higher protein diets on glucose homeostasis in patients with overweight and obesity and type 2 diabetes mellitus

Ahmad Hasan A Alzahrani

PhD thesis

In this thesis, we demonstrate that patients with overweight or obesity and type 2 diabetes (T2D) can effectively self-select and self-prepare a carbohydrate-reduced high-protein (CRHP) diet and can maintain their body weight while eating this diet ad libitum for 6 months, without experiencing any changes in appetite-related gut hormones.

The CRHP diet brought about a number of beneficial effects on parameters related to ectopic fat deposition, glucose homeostasis, and cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors. It decreased visceral adipose tissue volume and liver fat content, lowered fasting glucose and glycated hemoglobin concentrations, increased fasting insulin and C-peptide concentrations, and decreased daily glycemia.

The CRHP diet also led to considerable improvements in fasting blood lipid profile and postprandial lipemia, but only small improvements in markers of inflammation and diurnal heart rate. These findings have important implications as they suggest that a CRHP diet has considerable benefits on metabolic homeostasis and CVD risk factors in the absence of major weight loss in patients with T2D.

Longer and larger studies are needed to fully elucidate the long-term efficacy, safety and feasibility of substituting dietary carbohydrates with protein and fat in patients with T2D in real-life settings, and thereby help design effective therapeutic nutrition strategies.

Download Publications; Summary; Summary in Danish; Table of contents.

2022, 147 pages.

Time

15 June 2022, 13:00

Place

Aud - A2-70.03, Thorvaldsensvej 40, Frederiksberg and online.

Opponents 

Professor Christian Mølgaard (chair), Department of Nutrition, Exercise and Sports, Faculty of Science, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.

Professor Jens Meldgaard Bruun, SDCA-Steno Diabetes Center Aarhus, The Department of Endocrinology and Diabetes, The Department of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University, Denmark.

Associate Professor Amani Matook Alhozali, Head of Endocrinology Unit, Department of Medicine, King Abdul Aziz University Hospital, Saudi Arabia.

Supervisor

Associate Professor Faidon Magkos, Department of Nutrition, Exercise, and Sports, Faculty of Science, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.

The thesis is available for inspection at the library, Nørre Allé 51, DK-2200 Copenhagen N.