Effects of the ketogenic diet on components of the metabolic syndrome: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Abstract

Dietary interventions have been one of the major effective lifestyle interventions utilized to treat metabolic syndrome (MetS) among various lifestyle interventions for the treatment for MetS. The effect of ketogenic diet (KD) intake on MetS has received increasing attention since KD is a dietary intervention that may have the potential to improve risk factors of MetS. A meta-analysis of 24 studies identified by searching seven electronic databases was conducted to investigate the relation between KD intake and risk factors of MetS. The random effects standardized mean difference ± 95% confidence interval was calculated as the effect size. Results indicated that body mass index (BMI), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), triglyceride (TG), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), systolic blood pressure (SBP), blood glucose, glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c), homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) and insulin (d = 1.250, d = −0.482 d = 0.802, d = 1.325, d = 1.232, d = 1.606, d = 0.999, d = 1.664, d = 1.347, respectively) were significantly affected by the intake of KD. In addition, subgroup analysis was carried out. The results indicated that different length of KD intake period (16 w, 20 w, 22 w, 24 w) could affect MetS risk factors and the effect size of short-term KD is larger. The results of the review and meta-analysis revealed the effectiveness of KD and its potential to improve MetS and MetS risk factors.