Low-carb diet and its effect on the brain

[Adrian C.]

Is anyone aware of any medical research on low carbohydrate diet and brain activity/function?

[doreen T]

Sorry, the question is a bit vague. What brain functions do you mean?? Like, EEG output, brain size, intelligence, that sort of thing? Or mental symptoms such as fatigue, difficulty concentrating, etc...?

Doreen

[Adrian C.]

Brain's primary fuel is glucose. How is the low carbohydrate diet affect one’s cognitive skills? Where does the brain derive its fuel from?

[doreen T]

hi Adrian,

Most of the well-planned low carbohydrate programs provide enough carbohydrates - in the form of vegetables, low-sugar fruits, dairy products and/or small amouts of whole grains - in the daily plan to yield sufficient glucose for brain functioning. As well, the body can use dietary protein to manufacture glucose.

Perhaps you're thinking of ketogenic diets, where the carbohydrate intake is severely restricted for a longterm, ongoing basis. Even the Atkins program only restricts carb intake to below 20 grams per day for the initial 2 week Induction period.

Yes, the brain uses glucose as fuel when it's available. However, the brain functions very well on ketones, in the ABSENCE of glucose.

Here is a quote from the Ketogenic Diet Summary -- you may wish to read the rest of this article, as well as more information at http://www.keto.org/
A Ketogenic Diet is a muscle-sparing fat-loss diet that works by forcing the body into ketosis through carbohydrate deprivation. Ketosis is a state where the body converts fat into ketones that the brain can use for fuel when glucose (carbohydrates) are in short supply. .........

It's a common misconception, even among doctors, that the brain can only use glucose for fuel. In actuality, it can burn either glucose or ketones, but under normal circumstances ketones aren't produced by the body. Most of the time, everyone in the world has their brain burning glucose. The only time the body would create and burn ketones in large quantities is when insufficient glucose is available as a fuel source. The way to make glucose (a basic sugar) unavailable, is to simply restrict carbohydrate consumption to 30g/day or less. For example, if you stop eating all carbs at, say, 6:00 PM on Sunday, and then do a heavy weightlifting workout Monday and Tuesday, this will deplete your liver and bloodstream of and glucose, and your muscles of glycogen. At that point, your liver will start producing ketones, so the brain has a fuel to work with, and if you consume no carbohydrates at all, the body will start converting protein into glucose as it will still need at least 30g glucose per day.Ketogenic diets are used by training athletes and body-builders for the efficient fat-burning. Ketogenic diets are also used in young children for controlling intractable epilepsy seizures that are unresponsive to the usual drug therapies. Infants as young as one year old manage quite well, with no brain deficit -- often kids are on such a diet for years at a time.

You may wish to check out the Epilepsy Foundation of America (EFA) http://www.efa.org/answerplace/epusa/ketogenic.html and http://www.efa.org/answerplace/epUSA/newketogenic.html
where you'll find several up to date articles and more information on this subject.

For an excellent explanation of the difference between diet-induced ketosis, and the ketoacidosis of extreme starvation and diabetes mellitus, check out this article http://www.lowcarb.org/ketosis.html

And, finally, a handful of article abstracts on the effects of ketosis on rat's brains http://www.lowcarb.org/josh_yelon/topic5.html
and http://www.lowcarb.org/josh_yelon/topic11.html

Hope this answers your questions. And congratulations on your own weight loss thus far .. ;)

Doreen

[tamarian]

Originally posted by Adrian C.
Brain's primary fuel is glucose. How is the low carbohydrate diet affect one’s cognitive skills? Where does the brain derive its fuel from?

Adrian, welcome aboard. I can tell how people get afraid due to fear tactics by the sugar association/AHA.whaeat council etc. who would love to see low-carb dead and over with. There's a lot of money at stake they can lose when people start eating right, the way they used for centuries, before processed carbs came a long.

I tell you, my brian is more effecient with no sugar, coke bread, fries, etc.

Do your research, read, investigate, and decide based on the facts, not the opinions. Low-carb is not no carb and is not high fat, it means eat normally like human beings ate for thousands of years, before bread, coke and fries came along.

Click on link above link "Studies" for more studies/news//research, and if you find any scientific study against low-carb, please share it with us.

Wa'il