Improved glucose control in maturity-onset diabetes treated with high-carbohydrate-modified fat diet.

Fourteen patients with established maturity-onset diabetes were treated as outpatients with a high-carbohydrate-(about 60% of total daily energy requirements)-modified fat diet (ratio of polyunsaturated fatty acids to other fatty acids greater than or equal to 1:1) for six weeks. Commercially available and acceptable cereal foods and tuberous vegetables high in both digestible and non-digestible carbohydrates were used. Simple sugars were restricted. Compared with their usual, low-carbohydrate diabetic diet this diet resulted in a fall in basal plasma glucose concentration (average of values measured at 0300, 0500, and 0700), mean preprandial plasma glucose concentration (average of values measured at 0800, 1230, and 1730), and percentage of glycosylated haemoglobin. Modifying dietary fat also decreased the fasting plasma cholesterol concentration. The findings suggest that it is no longer justifiable to prescribe a low-carbohydrate diet for maturity-onset diabetes.