Posted by JohnL on May 31, 1999, at 14:01:36
In reply to Any suggestions for a 'depression' diet?, posted by Janice on January 8, 1999, at 3:42:56
> Anyone found a diet that helps their depression?
> I'm thinking about trying the Zone, by Sears. What's
> your experience as to what helps?Janice, I've read a lot about diets and have tried a lot. I guess for some of us with tough depressions, diet doesn't help much, but it can make a subtle difference. The trick is to get tryptophan-rich foods in your system BEFORE the proteins. So the first half of the day eat things like whole-grains, vegies, bananas. Eat your protein with the evening meal. Turkey and chicken are high in neurotransmitter precursors. If you think about it, it's just a well-balanced healthy diet with carbs earlier in the day than proteins. All kinds of things like vitamins, fish oils, almonds, other nuts, grains, turkey, bananas, etc. can make some difference, but it's kind of like, well, you don't really notice much untill you STOP eating those things. Then you realize they helped some, but nothing dramatic. Somewhere on the net you can order tryptophan from overseas. I read somewhere that eating a lot of pumpkin seeds supplies a good dose of tryptophan too. Anyway, who knows. Eating healthy is better than not. JohnL.
poster:JohnL
thread:2143
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/19990501/msgs/6870.html