How Foods and Nutrients Control Our Moods

There are no great tools to measure the levels of neuro-modulators outside a clinical setting.

The newer branch has three primary functions. The first centers on the heart and its ties to respiration. As activity in the vagus—also known as vagal tone—increases, a person’s heart rate and respiration slow. The second function centers on the endocrine system. As vagal tone goes up, the release of stress hormones in the body goes down. Higher va... See more

Seratonin makes us feel comfortable and in bliss with things. A lot of seratonin is in our gut, but not the kind leading to the comfortable feeling (they are in the brain). Starchy-carbs contain the amino acids that are the building blocks for and there increase the levels of seratonin. It blunts the appetite. It makes us feel relaxed and calm.

Neuromodulators are produced from amino-acids. Especially l-thyroxine is a building block of dopamine. This can be used to motivate activities leading to the intake of l-thyroxine. It makes us feel in pursuit and alert.

Aversion and arousal as a push pull that drive emotions and is connected with an action (moving/leaning in or out).

Certain artificial sweeteners disrupt the microbiome and favor the environment for unfavorable

When you eat something sweet, neurons in the stomach sense the sweetness and cause the release of dopamine in the brain making you crave sugar.

The locus cerulius releases epinephrine and has a lot of different functions. It creates alertness (can be experienced as stress, anxiety, excitement) while approaching food and activated the lateral hypothalamus to inhibit feeding. As we eat the mechanisms for calmness kick in, which is often impacted by the signals from the vagal nerve. People ba... See more

Better living through chemistry still requires better living.