Dealing with Brain Fog

Some low carb dieters experience muddy thinking. I was one of them.

Yeah. Not fun stuff. There were times I was utterly unable to recall the most common of words. Despite the low carb gurus touting the human brain's ability to run swiftly and powerfully on ketones, my own brain plods like a sniffling garden slug on ultra low carb. My cognition picked up a little when I went from the early 35-40 net gram phase to 55-59 grams, but even then I remained much compromised in thought and deed. My typing even slowed. When I upped my intake to 80 net carbs a day for maintenance the situation did improve greatly, but still caused troubling pauses in thought. It actually took a few months at my present 105 net grams for my brain function to normalize. I would certainly not enroll in school during a low carb diet.

I should note, however, that my sister (not a vegetarian) has dieted extensively at induction level carbs (20 net grams or less) and has yet to experience any cognitive troubles. As I've said before: individual physiology varies. You may be one of the lucky many who never experience the fog.

If you do find yourself muddling about trying to recall your aunt's new husband's name is there anything to be done for it? For omnivores, probably not, but for vegetarians, yes: acetyl l-carnitine. As a vegetarian you are likely desperately deficient in this nutrient. Since it helps the brain make use of ketones as fuel, acetyl l-carnitine can be a great boon to low carb dieters. If you're experience muddy thinking, please consider this supplement.

As a vegetarian, you might also be severely low on DHA. Well-intentioned folk will try to suggest that the ALA in flax seeds and flax oil can readily convert to this all-important long-chained fatty acid, but it is unfortunately not true. There are excellent algae-derived vegetarian DHA pills available. Please, for your health and mental wellbeing, consider taking at least one a day.