All the diets seem to scream and say “Say No to Carbs”. The very first thing that any diet preaches is cutting out the carbs in your daily diet. How good is this? Do you need to really exclude all carbs from your diet? Are carbs any good for us or do they merely add to the calorie levels and make those weighing scales go a full circle?

Studies however, beg to differ. Carbohydrates are an important part of our daily diet and definitely have an important role to perform. They surely must not be totally eliminated from the scene. We are sure to have a lot of ill effects rather than benefits by eliminating carbs totally from our daily diets.

The research at the Tufts University state after careful studies and observations that a low carb diet may have a serious effect on our “cognitive performance. After carefully studying the dieters they came to the conclusion that “dieters performed less well on cognitive tests when carbohydrates were restricted than if they reduced calories”. The reason for this being that “glucose” is an integral ingredient required for keeping our brain at an high alert level and keep the thinking process going at the highest level. Glucose as we know comes from the breaking down of carbohydrates from the food that we eat. Cutting down on the carbs definitely has a restricting effect on the brain. Holly A Taylor , Professor of Psychology says “The popular low-carb, no-carb diets have the strongest potential for negative impact on thinking and cognition.”

I sure have learnt that cutting out carbs an important requisite of our body is just not the way to going ahead. Studies also go to show that for those who cut out the carbs from the diet totally tend to snack or over eat. This is because your body does need this integral ingredient and cannot do without it completely. Having a balanced diet and combining it with a good exercise regimen is definitely the way to reducing weight and having a healthy body and mind. Just cutting out the calories is sure not going to get me anywhere with a low activity at the top level, I am sure going to loose out more than the gain.

So for me, it is a well-balanced diet. An appropriate combination of carbs, proteins, fats, vitamins and minerals is my choice. What is your choice? Would you still go for just cutting out those calories or do you want an active mind too?