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Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Low Carb Diets Won't Make You Happy

A study in this week's Archives in Internal Medicine (Nov 9, 2009, Vol 169, No 20) looked at the effect on mood and cognition of a low-fat versus a low-carb diet.  Patients on both diets lost the same amount of weight, 14 kilograms.  However, those on the low-fat diet had greater improvements in mood compared to those following a low-carb high-fat diet.


Interestingly, the "low fat" group got 30% of its calories from fat.  I'd call that more of a moderate fat diet, but clearly that diet has less protein and fat than the "low carb" diet.

Why the difference in mood?  Serotonin may be suppressed by a low carbohydrate diet, while it may be upregulated by a lower fat diet.

Thee bottom line:  It doesn't matter what you eat to lose weight.  But, what you do eat in your weight loss obviously has an impact on how you feel.

2 comments:

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jimpurdy1943@yahoo.com said...

"Low Carb Diets Won't Make You Happy"

False.

I have Type 2 diabetes, and my low-carb high-fat diet makes me happy. And it makes my tachycardia-prone heart VERY happy!

Recently my meals have often consisted of a salad-like concoction of chopped avocados, red bell peppers, and tomatoes, with melted unsalted butter generously drizzled over everything. Often, I add cream cheese, flaxseed, pecans and walnuts.

Yummy.

My chest pains and tachycardia have stopped, my blood glucose is down, and I'm happy!