Originally published April 20 2004
MIT researchers attack Atkins diet with distorted claims about
carbohydrates and mood
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
The attacks on Atkins continue: this time, with claims that the Atkins
diet can put you in a bad mood. A team from the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology has issued statements about the link between dietary
carbohydrates and serotonin (a brain chemical responsible for regulating
mood, among other things). It is absolutely true that the consumption of
carbohydrates raises levels of serotonin in the brain, but this is
precisely why the Atkins diet is so important: too many people are
literally "addicted" to carbohydrates due to these mood altering
effects. They automatically reach for sugar and white flour when they
need a mood fix. They eat carbs in the same way that a crack addict
takes another hit. When a person chooses food for its psychoactive
effects, that's the basis for an addiction. The Atkins diet gets
people off the carbohydrate addiction and allows their brain to function
normally, without diet-induced chemical swings. Does this cause people
to be in a bad mood? At first, yes. Just like quitting cigarettes or
kicking the coffee habit makes people irritable, too. Any time you kick
a drug habit, you're going to feel a little crabby, and dietary
carbohydrates are often little more than an indirect chemical addiction.
So for MIT to claim that the Atkins diet initially puts people in a
bad mood is hardly a revelation. You could say that kicking heroin puts
you in a bad mood, too. But really, if the Atkins diet helps you lose
body fat, isn't that going to put you in a good mood eventually?
In fact, it is being overweight that makes so many people depressed to
begin with. If they can shed those pounds (and a low-carb diet
definitely helps people shed pounds), you're going to be much happier,
even without carbohydrates.
The bottom line? The sort of press
reports you see in the article below are nothing but an ongoing smear
campaign against the Atkins diet. Furthermore, these statements from MIT
researchers are nothing but conjecture: there were no studies conducted
to reach any conclusion like "the Atkins diet puts you in a bad mood."
If anything, studies have shown that people who control their
carbohydrates and lose weight are happier than those who don't.
The Atkins diet - and others that limit carbohydrates - are likely to
put you in a bad mood, research has found.
A team from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology says
carbohydrates help to stimulate production of a key brain chemical
called serotonin.
Researcher Dr Judith Wurtman said: "When serotonin is made and becomes
active in your brain, its effect on your appetite is to make you feel
full before your stomach is stuffed and stretched.
According to Dr Wurtman's clinical studies, if the carbohydrate craver
eats protein instead, he or she will become grumpy, irritable or
restless.
He cited one study which found controlling carboydrate intake improved
the mood of 51% of those who took part.
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