Scientists found that dieters who cut out high energy foods such as pasta, bread and potatoes could end up starving their brain of the fuel it needs to function properly.
Their study on women aged 22 to 55 showed that those on a low carbohydrate meals suffered impaired memory function after just one week.
Psychology professor Holly Taylor, of Tufts University, Massachusetts, said that when carbohydrates were re-introduced the women's mental function returned to normal.
She added: "This study demonstrates that the food you eat can have an immediate impact on cognitive behaviour. The popular low-carb, no-carb diets have the strongest potential for negative impact on thinking and cognition."
The reason for the women performing poorly in the memory tests is because the brain uses glucose, which is obtained from carbohydrates in food, for fuel.
It cannot store the glucose, so a low carbohydrate diet means less fuel to power the brain cells. In the study, participants included 19 women who were allowed to select either a low-carbohydrate diet or a "low-calorie, macronutrient balanced diet." Nine women chose a low-carbohydrate diet.The others selected low-calorie meals.
All the dieters were tested for "cognitive skills" including attention, long-term and short-term memory, visual attention, and spatial memory which helps with everyday tasks and details about surroundings.
Low-carb dieters "showed a gradual decrease on the memory-related tasks compared with the low-calorie dieters". Their reaction times were also slower. However, they did do better on short-term attention tests.
Professor Taylor said: "Although the study had a modest sample size, the results showed a clear difference in cognitive performance as a function of diet.
"The data suggests that after a week of severe carbohydrate restriction, memory performance, particularly on difficult tasks, is impaired. It suggests that diets can affect more than just weight.
"The brain needs glucose for energy and diets low in carbohydrates can be detrimental to learning, memory and thinking." The findings will appear in the February 2009 edition of the journal Appetite.
2 comments:
seriously? Have to watch out for this as I don't eat carbs much either.. I do enjoy it if it is cooked right deliciously... doesn't count, does it?
It might be possible that the memory of enjoyment dominate the rest of the relevance brain functions thus falsify the memory loss thingy. Waiting for you to treat us with self cooked meal. Hurray
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