Glucose Intolerance in Obese Rats Due to High Carb Not High Fat Diet

While common wisdom tells us that a high carbohydrate + high fat diet will make us fat and sick. A new study by Fleur et al. (Fleur. 2010) indicates that a free-choice high-fat high-sugar diet induces glucose intolerance in absence of obesity. Also, rats fed a high-fat (low carb) diet avoided the negative effects on insulin tolerance despite similar comparable body weight gains:

Interestingly, the HF [=high fat] diet did not affect glucose metabolism, whereas the HFHS [=high fat, high sugar] diet resulted in hyperglycemia, hyperinsulinemia and in glucose intolerance because of a diminished insulin response.

The researchers conclude...

these results suggest that not only obesity or total caloric intake, but the diet content also is crucial for the glucose intolerance that we observed in rats on the HFHS diet.

This is just another of a handful of studies published in the course of the last months which argue against the high-fat = diabetes theory, many people (including practicing physicians) still adhere to.