Introduction 

Diet pattern commonly used comprised of 60-70% carbohydrate/CH: 20% protein/P: 10-20% fat/F. Overconsumption of carbohydrate leads to oxidative stress, inflammation, obesity, and various degenerative diseases. While in some population, adopt moderate calorie restriction, 30% reduction from all components, leads to fragility. Carbohydrate restriction diet, consist of 40%CH: 30%P: 30%F proposed as the best diet against inflammation, a key mechanism in degenerative diseases. This study investigated the superiority of carbohydrate restriction in inflammation markers.   

Method 

Posttest only control group design was applied to this study. Using 20 Sprague Dawley rats, aged 12 weeks, divided into 4 groups: CH70 (70%C:20%P,10%F), CH60 (60%C:20%P,20%F), CH40 (40%C:30%P,30%F), and CRall (30% reduction from CH70). Diet was given ad libitum for 30 days. Blood serum was tested for IL-6, CRP, and TNF-α. Data was analysed using ANOVA for each variable, with level of significance p<0.05.

Results 

Carbohydrate restriction showed the best level of IL-6, CRP and TNF- α among all groups. The lowest level of CRP found on CH40 (1.038mg/dL), followed by CRall (1.19mg/dL), CH60 (1.482mg/dL), and the highest level on CH70 group (1.74mg/dL). IL-6 level was also found the lowest point at CH40 (378.51 mg/dL), followed by CH70 (391.02 mg/dL), CRall (420.87 mg/dL), the highest point at CH60 (490.95 mg/dL). TNF-α was found the lowest level on CRall (2.522 pg/mL), followed by CH40 (3pg/mL), CH60 (3.498pg/mL), and the highest level on CH70 (4.09 pg/mL).

Conclusion

Carbohydrate restriction, using only 40% carbohydrate alleviate inflammatory process in rats. Further studies in human are required to investigate the adherence to this diet.  

Keywords: Macronutrients, diet, carbohydrate, inflammation, calorie restriction