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Demi
Mon, Dec-10-07, 10:37
From the December E-Newsletter email from the Food for the Brain Trust (http://www.foodforthebrain.org/content.asp?id_Content=1)


LOW CARB DIET BETTER FOR WEIGHT LOSS AND HELPS YOUR BRAIN WORK FASTER THAN LOW FAT DIET
In a recent eight week trial comparing a low carb high fat diet (LCHF) with a conventional high carb low fat (HCLF) weight loss diet, researchers investigated which diet was more effective for weight loss, improvement of mood and cognitive functions such as speed of processing and working memory in 93 overweight or obese adults. They found that the people on the low carb diet lost more weight than those on the low fat diet and also had better 'speed of processing' in tests, meaning essentially that their brains worked faster! Both groups had improvements in mood which may be simply due to feeling better about themselves because they were losing weight and neither group had an improvement in their memory.

Click here (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?Db=pubmed&Cmd=ShowDetailView&TermToSearch=17823420&ordinalpos=2&itool=ntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum) for the abstract : Low- and high-carbohydrate weight-loss diets have similar effects on mood but not cognitive performance, Halyburton AK et al., Am J Clin Nutr. 2007 Sep;86(3):580-7
Nancy LC
Mon, Dec-10-07, 12:09
ZOMG! Finally some fodder for the low-fatters claiming low carbers must be brain dead.
tom sawyer
Mon, Dec-10-07, 12:35
From the abstract it appears that the low fat diet resulted in the better speed of processing. But maybe I'm getting that wrong. Low carb gave better weight loss. In any case, 8 weeks is a pretty minimal time frame and the brain function stuff is probably so subjective as to be meaningless. Any study that says "needs more investigation" probably should have been done more thoroughly to beign with. I suppose they are bucking for more funding though.
tom sawyer
Mon, Dec-10-07, 12:37
"The LCHF diet resulted in significantly greater weight loss..."

"... there was a significant time x diet interaction for speed of processing (P = 0.04), so that this measure improved less in the LCHF than in the HCLF diet group."