Patients with type 2 diabetes who adhere to a low carbohydrate diet for six months might achieve higher remission rates compared with other recommended diets, international researchers say.

Their systematic review and meta-analysis also suggested the diets were linked to improvements in weight loss, triglycerides concentrations and insulin resistance without adverse events.

The research team drew on data from 23 trials evaluating the effects of low carbohydrate diets (<130g/day or <26% of a 2000kcal/day diet) and very low carbohydrate diets (<50g/day or <10% of daily calories) on adults with type 2 diabetes who followed the diets for at least 12 weeks.

Some 1357 patients aged between 47 and 67 participated in the trials, with many patients using insulin.