3. Mood Depends on Brain Chemistry, and Brain Chemistry Depends on Food

You’re probably familiar by now with the idea that our emotions are powerfully influenced by a number of brain chemicals called neurotransmitters (if not, check out Emotions and the Body). Just as your brain cells need to be built out of the fats you eat, neurotransmitters need to be built out of the protein you eat. The most important neurotransmitter when it comes to mood is serotonin. Millions upon millions of people today suffer from serious depression caused by low serotonin. Millions more experience seasonal affective disorder (mild depression in winter) and/or general dysthmia (a medical term for walking around a lot less happy than you could be) also related to serotonin deficiency. The general medical solution to depression is to prescribe drugs to increase serotonin activity. But these drugs all have side effects, and generally fail to really cure depression.

Amidst the rush to develop drugs to treat depression, no one invested much thought in why depression seems to be so common. The general position of the medical community is that low serotonin levels are partly a result of genetics, partly a result of environment, and really only treatable with drugs. If you buy this argument, consider the following:

Serotonin is synthesized in your brain from a chemical (an amino acid, specifically) called Tryptophan. Tryptophan is the only thing in the world that can be turned into serotonin in your brain. If you cut every bit of Tryptophan out of your diet, you would be completely unable to make serotonin. In a month or two you would descend into serious depression, and there’d be no reversing this without starting to consume some Tryptophan again.

If we told you that your current diet was nearly ten times lower in Tryptophan as compared to the diet that your ancestors were eating and that you are meant to be eating, how would you feel? Alarmed, we hope! Well guess what? Odds are this is the case. As a result of modern farming practices, there is substantially less Tryptophan in food today than there was throughout most of human history. Much of this owes to the feed given to farm animals. Animals these days are mostly raised on grain feed. Generally speaking, these grain based feeds are much lower in Tryptophan than the natural foods like grass, bugs, and worms that these animals are meant to consume. As a result, the animals themselves (and their milk) end up Tryptophan deficient. We eat these animals, and the Tryptophan deficiency gets passed on to us. Of course all of this proves disastrous for our serotonin levels and, thus, for our mood!

Add in that our bodies need adequate sunlight, exercise, and sleep to manufacture serotonin, and the fact that we require natural low glycemic carbs to keep a steady flow of Tryptophan going to our brains where it can be steadily converted to serotonin and vitamin B6, which is lacking in our diets to power the enzymes that make serotonin, and some of the reason behind the epidemic of sadness and depression in America becomes clear. As with most things that go wrong with our health, the widespread emotional dysfunction in our country is at least partially attributable to our having abandoned the natural patterns of eating, moving, sleeping, and living to which our bodies are adapted and on which our health depends. The solution lies in reestablishing these patterns in the most practical way possible. This is what ReEvolution is all about (see What is ReEvolution for more.).

So how do you get more Tryptophan into your diet? The best way is to eat meat and dairy products from animals raised on a true to nature diet. Chickens and turkeys need to be able to range fields, eating bugs and worms to up the tryptophan content of their meat. Cows need to graze on grass. Eating free range organic chicken and turkey, and grass fed beef, or yogurt, cheese, or milk from grass fed cows, are great ways to get more Tryptophan into your body. If you don't have access to high quality meat and dairy products, you can also consider supplementing with Pharaceutical grade L-tryptophan. Look for a brand fortified with B6 and B3, and add a gram of Trypotphan to your dinner.

Combine higher Tryptophan consumption with a general healthy eating strategy (see Simple Enjoyable Healthy Eating) which includes quality whole grains, and, over time, you'll be on the road to boosting your serotonin levels. But diet alone won’t really do the trick. You need to combine healthier eating with an exercise program, a reasonable sleep schedule, and the right mind set and attitude. When you make these changes your mood should start to return to its natural state, and for most people, this natural state isn’t one of sadness or depression!

Of course, all of this only addresses physical causes of mood problems. For more on the psychological side, take a look at Maximizing Emotional Health.