Foods with amino acids are the building blocks of protein. That means they are responsible for strength, repair and rebuilding inside your body. AMINO ACIDS Almost everyone who has ever come into my office has felt like a failure. Julia Ross' THE DIET CUREAMINO ACIDS Almost everyone who has ever come into my office has felt like a failure. They start with “just a little” and end up eating a lot more than they feel they should. Often their spouses or other family members criticize them, saying, “Why don’t you just try harder?” “If you’d just limit yourself to one . They are effective at work, they keep the bills paid and the checkbook balanced, they organize their children’s lives beautifully. They are actually models of willpower. We point this out. We remind them that they have lost weight—dozens, sometimes hundreds of times. Truly, there is nothing harder than dieting. Are you an emotional basket case who can’t get by without comfort food? If you had more strength, could you power through your problems without overeating? Should you feel ashamed of yourself for needing emotional sustenance from foods? ![]() I hope to help you understand why you are using food as self- medication. It’s not because you are weak willed, it’s because you’re low in certain brain chemicals. You don’t have enough of the chemicals that should naturally be making you feel emotionally strong and complete. These brain chemicals are thousands of times stronger than street drugs such as heroin. And your body has to have them. If not, it sends out a command that is stronger than anyone’s willpower: “Find a druglike food to briefly substitute for your brain’s missing comfort chemicals. We cannot function without them!” Your depression, tension, irritability, anxiety, and cravings are all symptoms of a brain that is deficient in the mood- enhancing and pleasure- promoting chemicals called neurotransmitters. Each of the five neurotransmitters we’ll be discussing here is made from a very specific amino acid. It’s obviously not too unusual, or there wouldn’t be so many people using food or antidepressants to feel better. Endorphins, our naturally comforting pain killers 2. Serotonin, our natural anti- depressant and sleep- promoter 3. GABA (gamma- aminobutyric- acid), our natural tranquilizer 4. Catecholamines, our natural energizers and mental focusers 5. There are at least twenty- two amino acids contained in high protein foods such as fish, eggs, chicken, and beef, including the nine amino acids that are considered essential for humans. Other foods, such as grains and beans, have fewer aminos, so they need to be carefully combined to provide a complete protein (for example, rice and beans, or corn and nuts). But many people need to kick- start a brains repair job, using particular, individual amino acids. After a few months, you will be getting all the aminos you need from your food alone and won’t need to take amino acids as supplements any longer. AMINO ACID SUPPLEMENTS POST- OPITFASTERSIn a study published in October 1. University of North Texas researcher Kenneth Blum and colleagues monitored two groups of dieters for two years after they had completed a medically monitored fast. The fasters had used the product Optifast, a powdered nutritional drink containing various vitamins and minerals, which dieters use to replace one, two, or even three meals a day. Blum’s study, 2. 47 Optifast graduates were divided into two equal groups. One group took the amino acids listed in this chapter. The other group took no amino acids. As we know from Oprah Winfrey’s highly publicized experience with Optifast and from the 1. Senate investigation of Optifast and Nutrisystems, a quick regain of weight after a liquid fast is to be expected in more than 9. However, this did not happen to Dr. Blum’s amino acid- taking group. At the end of two years, the amino acid takers showed: . THE AMINO ACIDS PROVIDED WERE L- GLUTAMINE, 5. HTP AND DLPARestoring depleted brain chemistry sounds like a big job—but it isn’t. Three of the four key neurotransmitters are made from just a single amino acid each! Because biochemists isolate these key amino acids and extract them from special yeasts, you can easily add the specific ones that may be deficient. These “free form” amino acids are instantly bioavailable (in other words they are predigested), unlike protein powders from soy or milk, which can be hard to absorb. Hundreds of research studies at Harvard, MIT, and elsewhere have confirmed the effectiveness of using just a few targeted amino acid precursors to increase the key neurotransmitters, thereby eliminating depression, anxiety, and cravings for food, alcohol, and drugs. Soon you’ll be free of food cravings, and the depression, irritability, anxiety, and over- stress that trigger them. The Amino Acid Therapy Chart on page 1. This is the secret: There are twenty- two different kinds of amino acids in high- protein foods like chicken, fish, beef, eggs, and cheese. See chapter seventeen, page 2. Amino Acids page. DIETERS MALNUTRITION REDUCES THE SUPPLY OF THE AMINO ACIDS THAT ARE NEEDED TO MAKE SEROTONIN. As the activity of the brain shrinks with dieting, the brain’s mental and emotional stability can falter—even fail. The four brain chemicals that dictate your moods are all derived from the amino acids in protein foods. Even nondieters who tend not to eat enough protein can suffer from low- protein brain drain. Tryptophan Depletion: The Path to Depression, Low Self- esteem, Obsession, and Eating Disorders. Serotonin, perhaps the most well known of the brain’s four key mood regulators, is made from the amino acid L- tryptophan. Because few foods contain high amounts of tryptophan, it is one of the first nutrients that you can lose when you start dieting. Studies show that serotonin levels can drop too low within seven hours of tryptophan depletion. Let’s follow this single essential protein (there are nine altogether) as it becomes more and more depleted by dieting, to see how decreased levels of even one brain nutrient might turn you toward depression, compulsive eating, bulimia, or anorexia. In his best seller, Listening to Prozac, Peter Kramer, M. D. These feelings can easily be the result of not eating the protein foods that keep serotonin levels high. As their serotonin- dependent self- esteem drops, girls tend to diet even more vigorously. Extreme dieting is actually the worst way to try to raise self- esteem because the brain can only deteriorate further and become more self- critical as it starves. More and more dieters worldwide are experiencing this miserable side effect of weight reduction on the brain. When tryptophan deficiency causes serotonin levels to drop, you may become obsessed with thoughts you can’t turn off or behaviors you can’t stop. Once this rigid behavior pattern emerges in the course of dieting, the susceptibility to eating disorders is complete. Just as some low- serotonin obsessive- compulsives wash their hands fifty times a day, some young dieters may begin to practice a constant, involuntary vigilance regarding food and the perfect body. They become obsessed with calorie counting, with how ugly they are, and on how to eat less and less. As they eat less, their serotonin levels fall farther, increasing dieters’ obsession with undereating. As their zinc and vitamin B1 (thiamin) levels drop low as well, their appetite fades. This can be the perfect biochemical setup for anorexia. Control, which so many therapists and researchers have observed as the central issue of anorexia, often comes down to this: tryptophan (and serotonin) deficiency result in an outbreak of the obsessive behavior that we call “controlling.” There may be psychological elements in the picture, too, but a low- serotonin brain is ill equipped to resolve them. Several large international studies of the causes of anorexia have concluded that the cause is a genetic serotonin- related mood disorder, not a psychological one. Tryptophan, Serotonin, Compulsive Overeating, and Bulimia. For reasons we don’t entirely understand, some dieters whose serotonin levels drop lose self- esteem and become obsessed with weight loss, but do not lose their appetites. On the contrary, their appetites expand. In the late afternoon and evening, especially in winter and during PMS (low serotonin times for all of us), these dieters can become ravenous and binge on sweets and starches. One of our clients ate regular breakfasts and lunches but dreaded her evenings, when she would binge on ice cream and cookies, whether she had eaten a normal dinner or not. Terrified of weight gain, she would throw up as soon as she ate. In several studies, bulimics were deprived of the single amino acidtryptophan. In reaction, their serotonin levels dropped and they binged more violently, ingesting and purging an average of 9. In another study, adding extra tryptophan to the diet reduced bulimic binges and mood problems by raising serotonin levels. Most recently, a University of Oxford researcher, Katherine Smith, reported that even years into recovery, bulimics can experience a return of their cravings and mood problem after only a few hours of tryptophan depletion. She concluded, “Our findings support suggestions that chronic depletion of plasma tryptophan may be one of the mechanisms whereby persistent dieting can lead to the development of eating disorders in vulnerable individuals.”Note that most compulsive eaters do not vomit. They keep it all down. But dieting can lower their serotonin levels, too, causing the same wild cravings and self- hate that bulimics suffer. As we trace the fate of only one depleted nutrient, tryptophan, and the brain chemical made from it, serotonin, you can again see how easily a dieter can develop an eating disorder. If you consider how many other critical brain and body chemicals are depleted through dieting, you have a more profound appreciation of the dangers you are exposed to on low- calorie diets. Questions about Amino Acid Therapy? Call l. Julia Ross' The Nutritional Therapy Institute Clinic at 4. Precautions: Not all amino acids and supplements are safe for all people. See chapter seventeen, page 2. The Diet Cure and the precautions list that follows this section of the Amino Acids page. Amino acids: Medline. Plus Medical Encyclopedia. Updated by: Linda J. Vorvick, MD, Clinical Associate Professor, Department of Family Medicine, UW Medicine, School of Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, WA. Also reviewed by David Zieve, MD, MHA, Medical Director, Brenda Conaway, Editorial Director, and the A. D. A. M. Editorial team.
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