Fasting Values of Blood Sugar, RQ, and Alveolar CO2 Tension on High and Low Carbohydrate Diet.

Abstract

Summary.On examining a number of subjects on a high carbohydrate diet (averaging 512 g carbohydrate daily) and on a low carbohydrate diet (averaging 135 g carbohydrate daily) the following results mere obtained: Fasting blood sugar was unaffected by the diet, averaging 89 mg % on a high carbohydrate diet, 88 mg % on a low carbohydrate diet. The RQ averaged 0.848 on the high carbohydrate diet, 0.755 on the low carbohydrate. This relation between the carbohydrate content of the diet and the fasting RQ corresponds closely to what can be inferred from the earlier literature. The fasting alveolar CO2 tension averaged 42.1 mm on a high carbohydrate diet, 39.2 mm on a low carbohydrate diet. It is shown that there is an individual level of the CO2 tension which varies with the carbohydrate content of the diet.