ketogenic brain experiment

[hotfrog]

Thanks for a great forum and fantastic people here.

Here is what I've come up with.

It is well-known by researchers such as Roy Baumeister that willpower is governed by a reservoir of short term energy, a shared pool of energy in our brains. Researchers have determined that when people are tested with willpower challenges, their brain energy runs down.

And it's related apparently to glucose -- a meal with glucose re-loads the willpower reservoir.

The famous example is an Israeil parole board who turns almost everyone down before meals, and then after meals grants 2/3 of parole applicants, and as the day wears on and their willpower reservoir declines, they start turning everyone down until their meal break.

It's how everything works and nobody is conscious of it.

So here's the experiment. If you are on a ketogenic diet, your brain is using ketones largely. I know that there is some glucose involved, from gluconeogenesis, but that is relatively small and it is now known that our brains can be fueled like almost all other cells from ketones.

So if you are on a ketogenic diet, do you have a larger more sustainable pool of willpower and attention?

What is your experience? Could we test it?

 

[Carl]

Thanks for a great forum and fantastic people here.

Here is what I've come up with.

It is well-known by researchers such as Roy Baumeister that willpower is governed by a reservoir of short term energy, a shared pool of energy in our brains. Researchers have determined that when people are tested with willpower challenges, their brain energy runs down.

And it's related apparently to glucose -- a meal with glucose re-loads the willpower reservoir.

The famous example is an Israeil parole board who turns almost everyone down before meals, and then after meals grants 2/3 of parole applicants, and as the day wears on and their willpower reservoir declines, they start turning everyone down until their meal break.

It's how everything works and nobody is conscious of it.

So here's the experiment. If you are on a ketogenic diet, your brain is using ketones largely. I know that there is some glucose involved, from gluconeogenesis, but that is relatively small and it is now known that our brains can be fueled like almost all other cells from ketones.

So if you are on a ketogenic diet, do you have a larger more sustainable pool of willpower and attention?

What is your experience? Could we test it?

This experiment was covered in the book 'Thinking Fast and Slow', just in case you haven't read it, it's a great book!

As to your question, the answer is a flat out yes. There have been days in the past weeks where I would wake at 7, have breakfast, and read sott for a bit. Then I would go to work, getting out between 4-5pm. Then I'd go to uni to work on coursework with colleagues, until 8pm, and then I'd go to my friend's house to get a few hours of work done for our business. My focus and energy level seems to increase the longer I go without food.

What exactly do you mean by testing? Clinical trials, comparing performance of carbivores and ketogens over a day without food? That's not really what we deal with here, but feel free to sift through the mountains of anecdotal evidence in the LWB and KD threads.

 

[Laura]

Indeed. The difference between burning carbs and burning ketones is well-described in the literature. Nora Gedgaudas compares carbs to cardboard in a fire that burn superficially hot and fast vs ketones as oak logs that burn slow and hot.