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:
"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!
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