High Protein Vs High Carb Diet
Which one works best?
Given all the recent hype about low-carb and high protein diets you might assume that high-protein/low-carb diets are more effective than high-carb/lower-protein* diets.
However, a study published this week in the Archives of Internal Medicine, Australian researchers found them equally effective. In a fairly heavily calorie restricted diet participants in both groups lost a considerable 30 pounds (14 Kg) on average over the course of a year.
But! this isn’t even the big news of the study. The researchers examined the effect of the diets on the mood of the dieters. In the long term people on the high-carb diets were much happier than those on the low-carb diets. The researchers suppose that it might be to do with low-carb diet leading to less serotonin being produced than high-carb diets, as other studies have indicated. I would say that it could also be due to the fact that when carbohydrate levels get low, the stress hormone cortisol is produced. This wakes you up in the morning and facilitates your body metabolising your muscles as an energy source to maintain blood sugar levels. The difference mood could also be due to the difficulty in maintaining a low-carb diet in a high-carb world.
Categories: Blog*Women were allowed 1,400 calories, and men about 1,700. On the low-carb plan, diets consisted of 4% carbohydrates, 35% protein and 61% fat, while the high-carb was composed of 46% carbohydrates, 24% protein and 30% fat.