New research from the University of Michigan, published in PLOS ONE, shows that a low-carb diet lowers post-meal insulin resistance and strengthens the body against high blood pressure, pre-diabetes and diabetes.
In the study, 32 healthy women were divided into four groups and given meals of either 30 or 60 percent carbohydrates with or without moderate-intensity exercise before meals. The low-carb group showed a reduction in insulin resistance after the third meal in the evening, but the high-carb group sustained high post-meal insulin. The study concluded that three low-carb meals within 24 hours lowers post-meal insulin resistance by more than 30 percent, but high-carb meals sustain insulin resistance, a condition that leads to high blood pressure, pre-diabetes and diabetes. Interestingly, the study also found that two hours of moderate-intensity exercise, which is supposed to lower insulin resistance and blood sugar levels, had no impact on these results. Instead, blood sugar levels increased after the exercise. Which means, in the case of this study, that exercise, typically thought to lower insulin resistance and blood sugar levels, didn’t have that effect after a high-carb meal.
What does this mean to you? While it may take longer than one day of low-carb eating to lose those extra pounds you’ve accumulated over the years, you’ll start to experience health benefits after just three low-carb meals.