The Mediterranean diet in the study consisted of no more than 50 per cent of daily calories from carbohydrates and no less than 30 per cent of calories from fat. (Julie Jacobson/Associated Press)

Eating a Mediterranean-style diet low in carbohydrates may be better for people with Type 2 diabetes than following a low-fat diet.

Mediterranean diets favour fruits, vegetables and whole grains, limited amounts of red meat, poultry and processed foods. It also includes a relatively high amount of fat from olive oil and nuts and few carbohydrates, and low to moderate intake of wine.

On the other hand, a typical low-fat diet advises cutting down on all types of dietary fat.

In Tuesday's issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine, Dr. Dario Giugliano, from the Second University of Naples, Italy, and his team said they found fewer overweight people newly diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes who followed a Mediterranean-style diet needed to use medication to lower their blood sugar levels after four years, compared to people randomly assigned to follow a low-fat diet.

After an average of four years, 26 per cent fewer people needed to go on diabetes medication in the Mediterranean diet group compared to the low-fat group. That translates into a 37 per cent decreased risk of needing medication.

Don't overlook benefits of diet change

When the study ended, body-mass index scores also decreased 1.2 points for those in the Mediterranean diet group compared to 0.9 for the low-fat diet group.

Cholesterol levels and blood pressure readings also showed greater improvement for participants eating a Mediterranean diet — heart-healthy changes that were maintained over the study.

The absolute difference in terms of weight loss was two kilograms, or 4.4 pounds, with the Mediterranean dieters also sporting slimmer waistlines.

These results "reinforce the message that benefits of lifestyle interventions should not be overlooked despite the drug-intensive style of medicine fueled by the current medical literature," the study's authors concluded.

The 215 study participants (107 people on a low-fat diet and 108 on the Mediterranean diet) also received counselling from nutritionists and dietitians once a month for the first year and then bimonthly for the next three years.

But the study was not blinded, meaning doctors prescribing medications knew which diet a participant was following.

Knowing who is in each group may lead researchers to conduct a study skewed so that the treatment they think is better seems to be better. The researchers also relied on participants to report what they ate.

The Mediterranean diet in the study consisted of no more than 50 per cent of daily calories from carbohydrates and no less than 30 per cent of calories from fat.

The low-fat diet was based on American Heart Association guidelines, and was rich in whole grains and limited in sweets with no more than 30 per cent of calories from fat and 10 per cent from saturated fats, such as animal fats.