Brain Power?

[teriland1]

I keep hearing "you need atleast 50 carbs a day for your brain to work!- lc diets are bad for your brain funtion!' Ok....so my brain seems to be working pretty well, and actually - I have had the most vivid dreams since I started this wol.

What do you all say??? How are your brains working?

[nikkil]

Mine's fine, IMO ;)

I had somebody lecture me that I needed to have a minimum of 60g carbs PER MEAL!!! You should have seen his face when I told him I'm taking in 20g PER DAY :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

[cs_carver]

It can make all the brain food it needs from dang near anything you toss at it.

If I lost anything at all to this WOE, I sure made it back when I lost all the fog that accompanied HC.

[KetoOwnsMe]

It's ok, I don't really use my brain much anyways. :D

[Dodger]

It obvious. The brain is mostly fat anyhow, so when you lose weight on low-carbing, you lose the brain fat first. With no brain left, there is no requirement for carbs to feed it.

[jimjam]

I have to be totally honest - at 60 carbs a day I feel much, much MUCH more alert and "with it" than I felt when I tried to go down to 30...just my experience, folks!

[Kristine]

As a lazy bum, I'm perfectly fine on 20-50 g of carbs per day, even in maintenance. If I needed more energy for cardio or an active job, for example, I'd probably feel a little sluggish. But you don't need any amount of carbs from your diet. Your body manufactures the glucose your brain needs.

[RCFletcher]

I am doing Stillman's at the moment which is as near 0 carbs as you can get. I am a teacher and my brain is as sharp as a pin - it needs to be. It is also sharp on Atkins induction on 20 ish carbs. Your body can make all the glucose it needs to keep the small part of the brain which needs it going from the ample protein we eat.

[tofi]

Experiments have shown that the brain will CHOOSE to use ketones for energy in preference to glucose if both are available. It only uses glucose because no ketones are available to high carb eaters.

So yes, it "needs" glucose if that's all there is. But low carb dieters actually provide what the brain PREFERS to use for energy.

[Iowagirl]

So THAT is why I can't think. I thought it was the blonde hair.

[fridayeyes]

Re: brain function...

While on a 30 ish g per day of carbs

I scored 85th through 99th percentile on my Graduate Record Exams.

4-pointed a year of classes in my PhD program.

Took an IQ test and got a 3-digit score where the second number was higher than the first.

Maybe I'm hallucinating.... but can you do that without a brain? :D

Cheers,

Friday

[tortoise]

No evidence of brain deterioration over the past 2+ years on low-carb, in fact the opposite. And here's an article about how Type 2 diabetes and "pre-diabetes" (insulin resistance) can impair brain function:

http://health.yahoo.com/search/healthnews?lb=s&p=id%3A61986

[BD231]

I think there's some truth to needing carbs guys. Ever since I got under 190 pounds I've been having a HORRIBLE time focusing. When I had extra weight on me the WOE was no problem, now it's a frikin nitemare!! Although I AM addicted to chicken salad which I will never stop eating.

Without carbs I just can't frikin think anymore though.