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A Study Found Keto, Mediterranean, and Plant-Forward Diets Cut Weight Equally. 1 Decreased Liver Fat by 67 Percent
While all three diets improved participants’ metabolic health, one delivered extra benefits in terms of liver fat, blood-sugar control, and insulin levels
Aug 27, 2026
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Finding the right diet for your individual needs can feel overwhelming. A new study from WashU Medicine might give you a bit more clarity
On Thursday, the study was published in the peer-reviewed journal Cell Metabolism. Its findings suggest that not all diet plans are created equally in reducing the cardiometabolic health risks associated with obesity.
The randomized clinical trial looked at three commonly recommended diet plans: ketogenic, mediterranean, and plant-forward. It found that losing weight on any of them improved overall metabolic health in adults with obesity who had both elevated blood sugar and excess fat in their livers. However, limiting carbohydrates through a keto diet offered additional health benefits for the liver and blood-sugar control.
Obesity affects approximately four in ten Americans, most of whom are already facing metabolic health risks like insulin resistance and fat buildup in the liver. When these conditions are left untreated, it can lead to type 2 diabetes, chronic liver disease, and cardiovascular issues
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Typically, weight loss is the gold standard for reducing obesity-related health risks. But it has not always been clear as to what kind of diet works best to improve metabolic health
“There’s a lot of, let’s call it, diet nihilism among both people and clinicians, and this general sense that the best diet is the one you can stick to,” Max C. Petersen, MD, PhD, an assistant professor of medicine at WashU Medicine and the study’s first author, told Inc. With that in mind, these researchers wanted to see what would happen when adherence to a specific diet was strictly controlled
The team at WashU randomly assigned 55 adults with metabolically unhealthy obesity—meaning obesity with prediabetes and fatty liver—to strictly follow one of the three diets for five months: a low-carb, high-fat diet; a high-carb, low-fat, plant-forward diet; or a Mediterranean diet that was a balance of the two.
