Low Carb Diets Good for Focus?

In a study on the benefits and drawbacks of a low carbohydrate diet, it was found that while a low carb diet may be detrimental to your short term memory, it may actually improve your ability to focus more on the task at hand.  Also, diets that have virtually no carbs at all were found to be detrimental to both focus and short term memory, since the brain runs on glucose, and pure protein diets don’t supply enough of this (it’s basically sugar, which is what carbohydrates are converted into when they are digested and absorbed by the body). 

This finding does not surprise me at all, because I have tried low carb diets and also an almost no carb diet (the Atkins diet advocates virtually no carbs, which is a terrible idea because it cuts out almost all fruits and veggies) and I noticed that both my memory and concentration seemed to improve when I was on lower carb diets, like South Beach and The Zone, but when I tried Atkins, I not only had a very short fuse patience wise and got low blood sugar spells almost constantly, but my memory and focus were virtually shot. 

I definitely do not advocate an extreme low carb diet such as Atkins because it cuts out so many of the foods that replenish our vital nutrients, vitamins and minerals, and many meats are devoid of anything but protein and maybe a few trace vitamins.  Also, the Atkins diet is very short on fiber which scares me since diets low in dietary fiber are linked to colon and colorectal cancers, and meat rich diets have also been linked to different types of cancers in both men and women.

Also, high protein, no carb diets do not really discriminate on meats.  As long as it’s a meat, it doesn’t matter, whether it’s a fatty meat like bacon or sausage, or eggs like a big fat honking egg omelette loaded with cheese, as long as that final carb count is low.  This is a terrible way to eat.  Not only will you constantly have a hard time going to the bathroom, but you may very well find yourself in a bad mood most of the time because your blood sugar is so low. 

If you would like to try to cut the carb content down in your diet, you could try a good carb blocker as well.  They act as a high fiber barrier against the absorption of carbohydrates and excess calories, at least that’s the idea of them, so you can read more about those as well if you’re looking for ways to cut the carb content in your diet.