Very-low carbohydrate vs DASH diet
It is likely that we have all heard or read about various very-low carbohydrate (VLC) “keto” diets, as well as the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet. The DASH diet has a long-standing history of being effective as a positive lifestyle modification for the treatment of hypertension and other health-related disorders. However, it also known that a VLC diet is effective at helping patients with obesity lose a large amount of weight. This is the first study to directly compare a VLC diet vs the DASH diet for patients with triple multimorbidity (hypertension, prediabetes or type 2 diabetes, and overweight or obesity) who are at an increased
risk of serious health complications. While this study had a small sample size (40 patients), the findings showed that a VLC diet resulted in greater improvements in systolic blood pressure, glycemic control, and weight over a 4-month period when compared with the DASH diet. While this study offers promising diet alternatives for our patients in the treatment of obesity-
related conditions, I would be interested to see additional laboratory values including a lipid profile and liver enzymes for both the VLC and DASH diets. References
Saslow, L. R., Jones, L. M., Sen, A., Wolfson, J. A., Diez, H. L., O’Brien, A., Leung, C. W., Bayandorian, H., Daubenmier, J., Missel, A. L., & Richardson, C. (2023). Comparing very low-
carbohydrate vs DASH diets for overweight or obese adults with hypertension and prediabetes or
type 2 diabetes: A randomized trial. Annuals of Family Medicine, 21
(3), 256–263. https://doi-
org.ezproxy.umary.edu/10.1370/afm.2968
