Comments on: Low-Carb Moody Blues?

By: Mark Levin

Mark Levin — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 17:08:20 +0000

A quick perusal of the article shows that they randomly assigned people to the diets, used dietitians (!?) to educate them in their respective diets. (Have you seen any dietitians who approve of low carb diets, besides Johnny Bowden?) Most importantly, they did not incorporate any physiological measures to assure compliance with the low carb diet such as testing for ketones in the urine. The results would seem to indicate poor compliance with the diet. The low carb people lost about the same amount of weight as the low fat wing, a negligible 4 pounds over a year. (I go up and down that much in a week!) The most significant item was that the low fatters had lower plasma glucose than the low carb wing. Let me see if I got this straight, one group eats more than 10 times as many carbs (46% or 690 g. of carbs per day vs. 4% or 16g per day) and has the same weight loss, but ends up with lower glucose levels with similar weight loss. A better measure of blood glucose would have HB1AC or the glycosylated hemoglobin to give results over a longer period. The HbA1c level is proportional to average blood glucose concentration over the previous four weeks to three months (Wikipedia).

I can’t really deal with the jargon based psych tests except to note that 2x as many low carbers were on antidepressants at the start of the study (24% vs. 12%) which the researchers said had no effect on the results when they were excluded. This in itself is kind of strange; reducing the size of the low carb group for statistical analysis from 32 to 24 had no effect on probabilities. It should also be noted that a true randomization would try to match percentages of volunteers who were on psychotropic drugs.

One final note is that the macronutrient percentages, 4% of total energy as carbohydrate, 35% as protein, and 61% as fat for low carb vs. 46% of total energy as carbohydrate, 24% as protein, and 30% as total fat for low fat. The low fat diet is actually a high protein diet (100 g/day). The carb intake is fairly similar to a conventional diet. The low carb diet is on the lower end of low carb diets which typically allow up to 60 g of carbs per day and extremely high in protein (140 g/day). All in all, another poorly done study used to scare people away from reducing their carb intake.

Good analysis. I read the study, and it just seemed a little fishy, like they designed it to ge the results they wanted.

By: Todd

Todd — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 02:14:43 +0000

I live in Japan, and they’ve gone quite American in their eating habits. The traditional diet was very low fat, but reasonably high in vegetables and soy products and fish. Now, it is full-on carbs with a lot more rice being consumed, less fish, lean cuts of meat, and pasta, bread, and corn-based snack foods replacing veggies, fish, and soy. Result – a lot more people with so-called metablolic syndrome. There was not much fat in the diet to begin with, and what protein was there is slowing being replaced with more carbs in various forms. And it looks to only get worse, as fruit and vegetables are being priced to where only the upper middle class and wealthy buy them. Everyone else gets snack foods and bread for the low price. Kids get some bread and milk in the morning, school lunches are usually mainly rice, with a tiny amount of meat and vegetable thrown in for color and flavor. Working in the public school system, I see plenty of lunches that are probably 90% carbs. And, behavior problems have been increasing as the traditional lunch disappears (a bit of grilled fish, miso (fermented soy paste) soup, seasonal veg, and tea). Now, kids usually eat a heaping bowl of cheap rice, and potato curry with a few scraps of chicken – often literally one little bit of chicken per bowl. I may be an optimist saying 90% carbs – it may well be 95%. You can have seconds and thirds of that lunch, yet feel hungry a few scant hours later. Then mom gives them some bread or a rice ball when they get home. No wonder the kids are going nuts.

Sorry to hear that. We import their electronics and cars, they’re importing our diet. They’re getting the bad end of the deal.

By: Andrea

Andrea — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 18:59:46 +0000

found a similar story in a weekly email i get from the washington post. it’s full of misinformation. i signed up for it just for the laughs
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/checkup/2009/11/which_diet_makes_you_happy_do.html?wpisrc=newsletter

Yeeup. Same nonsense.

By: erez

erez — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 09:43:57 +0000

thank you for depressing me even more than I allready am. now my burger craving is uncontrolable which will make me ever more depressed.
so, thank you very much.

on a happier note, I’ve just seen an article that in japan they out-lawed fat people.
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/japan/091109/fat-japan-youre-breaking-the-law

meet you there, neighbor!!!

I always wanted to be an outlaw.

By: ethyl d

ethyl d — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 04:04:15 +0000

Didn’t Dr. Eades mention in Fat Head that depression started becoming common around the same time that recommendations to eat a low-fat diet began to be promulgated?

Yup, and I think it makes sense.

By: Dr.LaTino

Dr.LaTino — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 23:01:24 +0000

How can eating a dry sugary cereal during breakfast instead of nice warm egg covered in butter make me sad?

I guess I must be psychologically disturbed, too.

By: Mark

Mark — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 22:29:31 +0000

Let’s not forget to mention sleeping disorders. I was previously following low-fat, higher carb diets while exercising 4-5 times per week without a good night’s sleep. I visited my doctor who explained I was doing everything right from the dieting to the exercise. The solution – sleeping pills!

Ever since switching to a high-fat, low-carb diet (bacon and sausages every morning!!) and exercising only 3 days a week I sleep like a baby…without the sleep-aids.

Good point. I got a lot of those restless-leg nights while living on pasta and bread.

By: HaleyNZ

HaleyNZ — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 22:05:25 +0000

Low carb got rid of my depression, and got me off the anti depressants after years of suffering. I’ve tried going back to low fat once since I’ve been a low carber and all the depression feelings came back. I went right back to low carb and haven’t looked back!

Low-fat diets weren’t good for my mood either. I don’t know how or if they manipulated their research, but I’m suspicious.

By: kash22

kash22 — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 08:05:24 +0000

The extent of irresponsible reporting makes me really angry. High carb diets are SO dangerous for people with depressive illnesses. One of the first things doctors recommend is EATING LESS SUGAR. I swear, people could sue MSN for this level of irresponsibility. Arg.

That’s what makes this nonsense so annoying. Sugar and starch aggravate any number of mental problems.

By: mezzo

mezzo — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 06:27:40 +0000

Maybe we should tell them that we don’t get the Moody Blues because we eat the Bloody Moos.

Excellent idea.