Low-carb diets make you crankier, study shows

   While you're at it, why don't you throw on some veggies
 onto the grill along with all that meat -- and then add some
  whole grains to your menu. You'll feel much better, a new
  study suggests.                         Morguefile photo/Seemann

Sure, the Adkins diet and other carb-restricting plans are effective at helping you lose weight, but how happy are you going to be in the long run? Apparently, not very.  A new study suggests that high-protein, low-carb diets make people crankier and more miserable than do conventional diets that include healthy carbs.

Of course, few people who are following a strict diet would call themselves "happy."  But the results of this study, conducted by a researchers in Australia, showed a stark contrast in moods after just eight weeks between the two groups of subjects -- the low-carb group, which ate a diet comprised of 4 percent carbs, 61 percent fat, and 35 percent protein; and the  high-carb group, who consumed 46 percent carbs, 30 percent fat, and 24 percent protein -- reports DoubleX.

According to the DoubleX article, doctors speculate that it may have something to do with the mood- and sleep-regualting hormone serotonin:

Research from the 1970s by MIT neuropharmacologist Richard Wurtman found that eating carbohydrates creates serotonin. Low-carb dieters therefore have less of the chemical and suffer from anxiety, reduced ability to cope, inappropriate anger ... and depression."

Bottom line: So, what's a healthy and happy dieter to do? Here's some good advice from Wayne Campbell, professor of food and nutrition at Purdue University: Eat 30 percent of your daily calories as protein, 45 percent as carbs, and 25 percent as fat.