How I Discovered the Nutrition of Happiness
“No medicine cures what happiness cannot.” Gabriel Garcia Marquez
So many people I know are on antidepressants or antianxiety medications. People are depressed and unhappy and many try to regain that happiness through prescription medication, alcohol, drugs, or risky behaviors.
We need to slow down and think about what makes us happy.
And I don’t mean your kids, your family, your job, or seeing a cute puppy on Tik Tok.
I mean neurotransmitters. And while I don’t agree with the entire neurotransmitter hypothesis of depression I think many people would agree that to be happy you need to have dopamine and serotonin in your body.
Sometimes drug use can contribute to depression because your body used up all these neurotransmitters in a fireworks display and it takes time to build them back up again. Like the fireworks barge going up in one blast like it did on First Night’s a decade ago.
Let’s think of this like cooking.
If you want to have these neurotransmitters your body has to make them.
They are hormones, chemicals made by your own body. To make dopamine you need L-dopa,which can be made from tyrosine which can be made from phenylalanine. (Some people have a disease called phenylketonuria where they have to limit their intake of phenylalanine.You are usually tested for it as an infant.)
L-dopa is found in
Velvet Beans (which can be poisonous if over consumed) Called Mucuna Pruriens or Mucuna Seed in health stores.
Fava Beans (which still make me think of Silence of the Lambs)
Both tyrosine and phenylalanine can be found in protein rich foods.
Turkey
Chicken
Beef
Dairy
Soy/Firm Tofu
Legumes (beans)
Phenylalanine Rich Foods
Pork
Tofu
Cheese
Gelatin
Almonds
Apples
Avocados
Bananas
Beets
Chocolate
Green leafy vegetables
Green tea
Lima beans
Oatmeal
Oranges
Peas
Sesame Seeds
Pumpkin seeds
Tomatoes
Turmeric — a spice
Watermelon
Wheat Germ
The precursor (or building block) to serotonin is tryptophan. These foods naturally contain tryptophan.
Salmon
Eggs
Spinach
Seeds
Milk
Soy Products
Nuts
And like cooking, having the ingredients is not the whole process. Even if you have all the ingredients for pancakes, it’s going to be hard to make them if your stove is broken. So too if you have an issue with your adrenal gland it may be difficult to make dopamine. But having the ingredients is a good start.
We can talk about exercise, sunlight and sleep another day!