United States (17 December '08). Eliminating carbohydrates in daily
diet is to lose weight, but its side effects is surprising, namely
declining memory. This is proven by experiments conducted Holly A.
Taylor, PhD, and colleagues. They studied 19 women aged between 22-55
years who were ordered to do low-carb diet or low calorie diet (lots
of fruits, vegetables, and grains). Before the diet, participants
experiment tested whether short-term memory or long term. This test is
repeated one, two, and three weeks after the diet begins. In a memory
test unity week, participants low-carb diet showed poorer outcome
compared with the results achieved low-calorie diet participants.
Participants low-carb diets have slower reactions and visual-spatial
memory is worse. But they showed better results on tests of attention
and the ability to stay in a given task. Memory ability of
participants low- carbohydrate diet showed improvement after the first
week when they were asked to eat foods that contain limited amounts of
carbohydrates. The results of this experiment showed that the diet not
only affects the weight. The brain requires glucose (obtained from the
breakdown of carbohydrates) for energy, therefore the low-carb diet
can lower learning ability, memory, and thinking. As stated by Taylor.
But this experiment proved only short-term effect of low- carbohydrate
diet, for that other studies should be conducted to see long-term
effect of diet on memory.