Carbs Boost Your Mood

A recent study of more than 100 obese and overweight adults in Australia found that dieting put people in a better mood; a drop in pounds led to increased satisfaction. BUT for people on low-carb diets, the mood boost didn't last. After a year, the low-carb dieters also lost the positive mood effects, while the low-fat dieters did not.

The Archives of Internal Medicine state:

It's not clear why the mood benefits faded for people in the low-carb group.

But the researchers suggest that the low-carbohydrate diet may have been too hard and too different from how people used to eat.

The low-carb diet may have been "so far removed" from normal eating patterns that it became a lot of work and a social burden, note the researchers.

Carbohydrates provide a boost in serotonin and research has shown that low-carbohydrate diets could interfere with the brain's memory functions, so cutting carbs out of your diet may not be the best idea!