Keto diet cut liver fat by 67% in a clinical trial
A clinical trial published in Cell Metabolism found that a ketogenic diet significantly reduced liver fat and improved metabolic health in obese patients with prediabetes. The study compared the keto diet against Mediterranean and low-fat diets, suggesting superior metabolic benefits.
Why it matters
These findings provide evidence-based insights into dietary interventions for managing obesity and metabolic syndrome, which affect a large portion of the global population.
A very low-carbohydrate, high-fat diet may provide stronger metabolic benefits for people with obesity than either a Mediterranean diet or a low-fat diet, according to a clinical trial published August 27 in the Cell Press journal Cell Metabolism . After four to five months on a ketogenic (or "Keto") diet, about half of the participants with obesity and prediabetes no longer met the criteria for prediabetes.
"We know weight loss can improve metabolic health in people who are obese," says Samuel Klein, the study's corresponding author at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri. "Our data suggest that if you have high liver fat content and prediabetes, reducing carbohydrate intake can have important therapeutic effects on metabolism beyond just weight loss alone."
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