Blood Sugar Undermines Human Memory

The New York Times reports on new research showing how even "moderately elevated" blood glucose reduces the ability to form memories, and -- because blood glucose regulation declines with age -- this may help explain why our brains decline as we age.

Oddly, the only recommendation in the article is this:

Since glucose regulation is improved with physical activity, Dr. Small said, “We have a behavioral recommendation — physical exercise.”

I'm all in favor of exercise, to be sure, but I also immediately thought of diet. Studies have shown that low carbohydrate diets dramatically lowered blood glucose (see here, here, and here). To be sure, there's one small study suggesting that "severe carbohydrate restriction" somewhat impairs memory in the very short term (i.e., one week). It would be interesting (albeit practically impossible at this point) for someone to do a study on how cognition is affected after a few decades of a carbohydrate-restricted diet.