Dr. John's Health Matters

September 1, 2009 (Medscape.com) — Diets high in carbohydrates or fat can lead to significantly better cognitive-performance and inflight-testing scores in pilots than diets high in protein, according to results reported in a poster presentation at the Military Health Research Forum (MHRF) 2009 in Kansas City, Missouri.

In addition, a high-carbohydrate diet helped study pilots sleep better, and a high-fat diet appeared to lead to significantly faster short-term memory.

“We started out thinking that the high-protein diet would lead to being the sharpest afterward,” said colead investigator Glenda Lindseth, RN, PhD, licensed registered dietician and professor of nursing at the University of North Dakota (UND) in Grand Forks. “But we were surprised by our findings that it was actually the high-carb or high-fat diets that were the best. Eating a diet that’s high in protein just isn’t going to help you perform optimally.”

“As a retired air-force pilot and a pilot for over 30 years, I believe this type of study is definitely needed,” said the other colead author, Paul Lindseth, PhD, professor of aviation and associate dean at the UND Odegard School of Aerospace Sciences. “This is important for pilots in the military and in combat situations, where they need to be sharp and alert.”

For full medical article, see link above.