A bibliometric and visual analysis of low carbohydrate diet

Gang Lu; Xin Huang; Chun Lin; Lijuan Zou; Huashan Pan

doi:10.3389/fnut.2023.1085623

A bibliometric and visual analysis of low carbohydrate diet

Front Nutr. 2023 Feb 23:10:1085623. doi: 10.3389/fnut.2023.1085623. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Gang Lu¹, Xin Huang², Chun Lin², Lijuan Zou², Huashan Pan³

Affiliations

¹ Clinical Medical College of Acupuncture Moxibustion and Rehabilitation, Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, Guangzhou, China.
² School of Physical Education and Health, Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, Guangzhou, China.
³ Science and Technology Division, Guangdong Food and Drug Vocational College, Guangzhou, China.

Abstract

Introduction: Numerous studies have confirmed the effects of low carbohydrate diet (LChD) on metabolism and chronic diseases. However, there were no bibliometric studies on LChD. This study was conducted through a bibliometric analysis to investigate the current status, hotspots and frontiers trends.

Methods: We searched all research publications related to LChD from 2002 to 2021 on the Web of Scientific Core Collection (WoSCC). CiteSpace and VOSviewer software was used to analyze countries/regions, institutions, journals, authors, references, and keywords.

Results: A total of 6938 papers were included, with an increasing trend of annual publication. LChD categories mainly included nutrition, endocrinology, and neurosciences which reflected the interdisciplinary characteristics. USA was with the largest number and the world science center in LChD field. Universities were main research institutions and five of the top 10 institutions were from USA. Eric Heath Kossoff had 101 publications and ranked first. Nutrients was the leading journal. "A randomized trial of a low-carbohydrate diet for obesity" and "Obesity" were considered to be the most co-cited and cited reference respectively. The hotspots of LChD are four aspects, "ketogenic diet", "metabolism disease", "cardiovascular disease" and "cancer". We summarized that "oxidative stress", "gut microbiota", and "inflammation factors" are becoming frontiers trends of LChD research in the future and deserve further study.

Discussion: Over the past 20 years research on LChD has gained great attention. To better explore LChD field, multilevel mechanism studies will be required in the future.

Keywords: CiteSpace; VOSviewer; bibliometric analysis; frontiers trends; hotspots; low carbohydrate diet.

Grants and funding

This study was funded by the Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province, China (No. 2021A1515011506) and Department of Education of Guangdong Province, China (No. 2021KTSCX237). This study was also supported by Guangdong Food and Drug Vocational College.