Psychometric Properties Of Carbs

Psychometrics is a field of study that involves the measurement of psychological constructs, typically with multiple choice-style survey questionnaires. Such devices can be used to measure a variety of psychological characteristics, with well-known examples including IQ, job aptitude and personality testing. As your diet can affect the outcome of these tests, know how your daily intake of carbohydrates may impact your psychological well-being.

Euphoria

According to fitness expert Charles Poliquin, psychometric testing consistently reveals low-carb dieters to have higher than average well-being. Andrew Brown of the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia supports this in a study published in the January 2007 issue of "Medical Hypotheses." Brown claims that low-carb diets force your body to produce ketones, a class of chemicals that can replace glucose as your brain's fuel. As these compounds are closely related to the street drug GHB, which causes feelings of euphoria, Brown believes that low-carb diets improve your well-being by causing drug-like euphoric effects.

Happiness

Although these feelings of euphoria may seem to indicate happiness, this may not be the case. Instead, this euphoria may be as short-lived as that of GHB, with low-carb diets potentially leading to greater unhappiness over time. Daniel Mangels of the University of California, Berkeley suggests, in a study published in the Fall 2008 issue of "The Mind," that high-carb diets may be a better indicator of happiness. Noting that Danes consistently score higher than all other nationalities on psychometric measures of happiness, Mangels suggests that Danish people owe this happiness to their diet, which contains large amounts of carbohydrate-rich comfort foods.

Stress and Self-Esteem

Low-carb diets may further contribute to feelings of unhappiness by causing intense food cravings. In the November-December 2010 issue of "Nutrición Hospitalaria," a team led by Ignacio Lobera of Pablo de Olavide University in Seville, Spain note that cravings for carbohydrate-rich foods are among the most common food cravings. Citing past psychometric research on food cravings, these researchers point out that people with intense food cravings tend to score lower on measures of self-esteem and higher on measures of stress.

Intelligence

A diet with adequate amounts of vitamins and minerals, fats, carbohydrates and protein is necessary for memory and intelligence. In addition, chemicals that your body produces to help break these compounds down may help to improve intelligence due to the other roles that they play in the body. In the March-April 2011 issue of "Intelligence," a group headed by Con Stough of Swinburne University in Hawthorn, Australia note that one of these intelligence-enhancing chemicals is alpha-lipolic acid. Otherwise known as ALA, your body produces this chemical to help break down carbohydrates, with production increasing as your carbohydrate intake increases. Based on scores on the Raven Advanced Progressive Matrices, a non-verbal psychometric measure of intelligence, these researchers suggest that high amounts of alpha-lipolic acid can help to boost both your memory and overall intelligence.