Patients with
type 2 diabetes often develop the microvascular complications of
diabetic kidney disease (DKD) and diabetic
peripheral neuropathy (
DPN), which decrease quality of life and increase mortality. Unfortunately, treatment options for DKD and
DPN are limited. Lifestyle interventions, such as changes to diet, have been proposed as non-pharmacological treatment options for preventing or improving DKD and
DPN. However, there are no reported studies simultaneously evaluating the therapeutic efficacy of varying dietary interventions in a
type 2 diabetes mouse model of both DKD and
DPN. Therefore, we compared the efficacy of a 12-week regimen of three dietary interventions, low
carbohydrate,
caloric restriction, and alternate day fasting, for preventing complications in a db/db
type 2 diabetes mouse model by performing metabolic, DKD, and
DPN phenotyping. All three dietary interventions promoted
weight loss, ameliorated glycemic status, and improved DKD, but did not impact percent fat mass and
DPN. Multiple regression analysis identified a negative correlation between fat mass and motor nerve conduction velocity. Collectively, our data indicate that these three dietary interventions improved weight and glycemic status and alleviated DKD but not
DPN. Moreover, diets that decrease fat mass may be a promising non-pharmacological approach to improve
DPN in
type 2 diabetes given the negative correlation between fat mass and motor nerve conduction velocity.