Improve brain function (maybe) with low carb eating!

Most of the time your body burns glucose for energy. The glucose comes the carbohydrates you eat. If you don’t eat carbohydrates, your body burns fat for fuel—including stored fat. This process is called lipolysis. The byproducts of lipolysis are ketones—the fuel your body uses instead of glucose. In this situation, your body is in a state called ketosis. (Getting your body into this state is the basis of the Atkins diet.)

Recently, an article in The Scientist, had this headline:  “Studies: Ketogenic Mice Live Longer, Healthier Lives,” with the following subhead “High-fat, low-carbohydrate diets are shown to increase lifespan and preserve memory in two independent mouse experiments.” I knew that you could lose weight with a ketogenic diet, but live longer? Preserve memory?

Two independent studies on mice (published in Cell Metabolism) showed that the mice “avoided obesity and memory decline and displayed reductions in midlife mortality” and also showed “improvements in motor function, grip strength, and other indicator of muscle mass.” One of the researchers also noted that “The older mice on the ketogenic diet had a better memory than the younger mice. That’s really remarkable.”  While these are just mice we’re talking about, I wouldn’t be surprised if the same effect could occur in people, which the researchers will go on to study.

Eating a very low carbohydrate diet isn’t easy (fruits and vegetables are carbohydrates, not just bread, cakes, and pasta). I tried it for a while. You can get these special paper strips to test your urine to see whether your body has gone into a state of ketosis (burning fat for energy). Even though I was quite strict, mine never turned the color it was supposed to—although it did get part way there. But a friend of mine said it happened instantly for her. People are different!

Because I believe in low carb diets, that’s the way we try to eat around here. But my brain function hasn’t changed, nor has my weight. I'm not strict enough.

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