News
“High” On A Low-Carb Diet
A particular type of diet, low on carbohydrates, can have the same effect on your brain than a drug called fantasy – liquid ecstasy. The difference? While the drug harms your brain, the “high” you get from the low-carb diet is perfectly safe, even the indicator that your body is reacting in a healthy way to stimuli.
This is how it works. A very low-carb diet flips your metabolic switch from burning more carbs than fat, to more fat than carbs. This usually takes a few days in a process known as ketosis.
During this time, your body thinks it's starving. Once it uses up most of your glucose (carb) reserves, the body stimulates the breakdown of stored fat into fatty acids and releases them into the blood.
When fatty acids reach the liver they're converted into acetoacetate, an excellent metabolic fuel that belongs to a family of chemicals called ketones. That's why very low-carb diets are sometimes called "ketogenic" diets.
Acetoacetate decomposes to carbon dioxide and acetone, the smelly solvent best known for its ability to remove nail polish.
A healthy liver minimises the acetone lost via the lungs by converting most of the acetoacetate it produces to a more stable substance, called beta-hydroxybutyrate or BHB. And this is where those euphoric feelings could come from.
In fact, BHB is almost identical to GHB, the naturally occurring neurotransmitter that in synthetic form is used as a recreational drug. Both consist of just 15 atoms, with the only difference being the position of one hydrogen and oxygen atom. It's not too surprising, therefore, the two molecules share the same carrier across the impermeable tissue that protects the brain. But there are no reports of low-carb diets causing any of GHB's adverse effects, like loss of consciousness, seizures and death.
This is how it works. A very low-carb diet flips your metabolic switch from burning more carbs than fat, to more fat than carbs. This usually takes a few days in a process known as ketosis.
During this time, your body thinks it's starving. Once it uses up most of your glucose (carb) reserves, the body stimulates the breakdown of stored fat into fatty acids and releases them into the blood.
When fatty acids reach the liver they're converted into acetoacetate, an excellent metabolic fuel that belongs to a family of chemicals called ketones. That's why very low-carb diets are sometimes called "ketogenic" diets.
Acetoacetate decomposes to carbon dioxide and acetone, the smelly solvent best known for its ability to remove nail polish.
A healthy liver minimises the acetone lost via the lungs by converting most of the acetoacetate it produces to a more stable substance, called beta-hydroxybutyrate or BHB. And this is where those euphoric feelings could come from.
In fact, BHB is almost identical to GHB, the naturally occurring neurotransmitter that in synthetic form is used as a recreational drug. Both consist of just 15 atoms, with the only difference being the position of one hydrogen and oxygen atom. It's not too surprising, therefore, the two molecules share the same carrier across the impermeable tissue that protects the brain. But there are no reports of low-carb diets causing any of GHB's adverse effects, like loss of consciousness, seizures and death.