Researchers at Tufts University in Massachusetts released results this month that might interest you. So let me see if I can walk you through their study.
Bottom Line: Low carb diets, especially in the initial stages where they are basically “no carb” diets, end up starving your brain. So the key is you need some carbs, even in a low-carb diet.
Here’s the explanation. The brain uses glucose (sugar) as it’s main fuel. Since your body breaks carbohydrates into sugars like glucose, your brain won’t get what it needs without carbs. That makes logical sense, but to be honest, I’m not sure this study “proves” it.
What you want, if you are trying to go low carb, is to trigger ketosis (where your body burns fat for fuel). But don’t cut out all carbs.
Their study seemed to have a really small sample size – only 19 women. The women had the same body-mass index (BMI). Another “flaw” – the study was only measured over 3 weeks.
About half the women went on a week of no-carb, the other half on low-carb. They found that the no-carb group performed worse on short-term memory tests (such as remembering number sequences). But introducing even 5 grams of carbs a day reversed the decline.
Although I have a degree in physics, my statistics skills are a bit rusty – seems like they’d need a larger pool to make this conclusive… Since it appeared in a peer-reviewed medical journal called Appetite, I guess the science community feels it was valid enough to publish.
To learn more about human brain memory – check out Trevor Ponder’s blog.
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February 1st, 2009 at 1:09 pm
Really enjoyed this and the site – am now following on my blog! Thanks.