Originally Posted by Lemonlime

I was just researching foods that increase dopamine last night. We are intrigued by the banana and will try it, among
other foods listed, as a daily supplement, to see if it has an effect.

http://www.livestrong.com/article/34...ne-production/

FOODS THAT INCREASE DOPAMINE PRODUCTION


Low dopamine levels can cause depression, food cravings, loss of satisfaction and motor control as well as poor attention and focus. The brain produces dopamine from an essential amino acid called phenylalanine that it converts into tyrosine in order to synthesize dopamine. Foods that contain phenylalanine or tyrosine and increase dopamine naturally include bananas and high-protein foods such as cottage cheese and meat.
HIGH-PROTEIN FOODS
Dopamine is important for motivation, sexual arousal, healthy assertiveness and the proper functioning of the immune and autonomic nervous system. The University of Maryland Medical Center reports that research indicates stress may diminish the body's capacity to make enough dopamine-producing tyrosine from phenylalanine. Eating foods high in protein is important because the body makes amino acids from protein, which raises the levels of tyrosine in the blood. Foods high in protein include chicken, turkey, soy products, fish, yogurt, cheese and cottage cheese.

According to the Franklin Institute, while eating a carbohydrate-high morning meal has a calming effect because it releases tryptophan in the blood, a high-protein breakfast that raises tyrosine levels can keep you alert, motivated and energized for hours. Your breakfast can be composed of two groups of protein foods. Complete protein foods such as meat, fish, poultry, yogurt and cheese have all eight essential amino acids, whereas legumes, grains, nuts and seeds are incomplete proteins and offer only some of the essential amino acids necessary to the production of dopamine.
BANANAS, APPLES AND WATERMELON
Bananas, especially ripe bananas, are a good source of dopamine. The brown spots on a ripe banana indicate places of high concentrations of tyrosine responsible for the production of dopamine. Ripe bananas can be mixed with yogurt or milk and honey to disguise the ripe taste some people find unappetizing.

Watermelon is another fruit that can raise dopamine levels naturally. It contains great quantities of vitamin B-6, which the body uses in its production of neurotransmitters, including dopamine. Apples contain the antioxidant quercetin that protects the body from free radicals that can destroy dopamine.
BEETS AND AVOCADOS
Beets contain the antidepressant betaine that stimulates the production of SAM-e, or S-adenoslmethionine, essential to the body's production of hormones such as dopamine. Avocados not only increase dopamine levels in the body, the healthy fats they contain increase levels of endorphines, which are also pleasure-stimulating chemicals. Because dopamine is readily oxidized, fruits and vegetables in general, because they are rich in antioxidants, help protect the neurons that use dopamine from free radical damage.
NUTS, SEEDS AND BEANS
Eating nuts and seeds, especially almonds, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds and sesame seeds, helps increase dopamine levels in the body. Beans and legumes are rich in protein and also favor the production of dopamine, in particular lima beans.
WHEAT GERM
Wheat germ is a good dietary source of the essential amino acid phenylalanine that the body uses to convert to tyrosine so that the brain can produce dopamine. Wheat germ can be sprinkled on yogurt or baked into muffins

Originally Posted by steve lord

This diet raises dopamine so dramatically, continuously, that I believe it would cause in many Parkinsons sufferers total elimination of symptoms.

You can do this same test, although perhaps I am better at perceiving subtle brain changes than most if I focus my attention on it, which is necessary to assess accurately, I ate each food I could find, one at a time, waited until it hit my blood stream , in me it took only a couple of minutes, 5minutes for fats, for perhaps a slight part of the food to begin to give me a reaction telling me it was to some degree in my bloodstream, and then if it gave me a pleasureable feeling (increased dopamine) I noted that, or if it neither raised nor lowered my dopamine I noted that or if it lowered my dopamine (dulled my brain in a tell tale way, reduced how good it felt) I noted that. I figured that if the food was something we evolved eating or close enough to that, it would not make us lower our dopamine output and if it was good for us because we evolved eating it we would be encouraged to eat it again by our dopamine reward system increasing our dopamine.

So if it made me feel worse I didnt eat it any more. At the end of my tests , I did these tests for months, I found that only fruits and vegetables increased my dopamine pleasure , but not all of them), and most grains were close to neutral, and all animal products suppressed dopamine(except some birds, like chicken , game hen, (and turkey wasnt too bad) were close to neutral, ) , meat being the worst, Skim milk may have been ok, I dont recall.

What I found is that the key to having the highest possible dopamine was in the fats I ate, that is the part of the food that ends up in the brain I read. And if I followed a super strict diet avoiding all things that lowered my dopamine, my dopamine got so high (I do not have Parkinsons, ) that I felt like I was almost on a pleasure high all day, and my brain felt pleasuably light around the clock. My restless leg syndrome reduced almost to zero symptoms too as a result of this diet, that syndrome being caused by too little dopamine in some parts of the brain. The feeling I get from this diet throughout the day is so pleasureable that it makes life so worthwhile that this diet is worth it to me even though I dont have Parkinsons. I can just sit there doing nothing and super enjoy life merely due to the feeling.

So here is the diet and it raises dopamine around the clock to such a degree that i believe that many people with Parkinsons would not experience Parkinsons symptoms at all, and that everyone with Parkinsons would be significantly betterr, if they ate this strict diet, which unfortunately isnt easy.

Avoid all animal food to start, you could add the birds later to see if that reduced the effect. That includes dairy.

Avoid completely the following oils. This is crucial, not a drop, Safflower, sunflower, canola, some grapeseed oils, however Salute brand is good, available at health food stores or from the manufacturer, can be cooked with. Most but not all brands of olive oils are ok in small amounts because beyond a small amount , omega 9 oil in olives and nuts suppresses dopamine. Also completely avoid, not even a tiny drop, of anythng soy, it will suppress your dopamine (and serotonin) for about six hours. Soy actually was shown to have caused brain loss on MRI in the most tofu eaters in a large medical study. You can prove to yourself about soy. SOme morning when you feel tip top after awakening, with our dopamine high, take even a tiny amount of soy and all
that pleasurable feeling disappears. Safflower oil suppresses doppaminie the most. Corn oil is ok although not as ideal as Salute grapeseed oil. However a caution, I let my omega 9 get too low at first before I supplemented a tablespoon of red palm oil which is half omega 9 and this deficiency of omega 9 , although I didnt need mmuch, set off a bout of chronic fatigue syndrome or a dead ringer for it, totally relieved by a tablespoon of olive oil. My satuated fat got so low in this diet my cholesterol become so low as to be unmeasuable, which is not good, you need to have it over 110, so I had to add the red palm oil , to get enough saturated fat. So with this diet my total cholesterol went from 190 to 110, my blood pressure went from 150 over 100 to 110 over 70. No one with a total cholesterol of 150 or below in the huge two generation of an entire town of 25000 Framingham Heart Study ever had a heart attack I heard one of the Drs in the study say on the radio once.

I add a tablespoon and a half of SPectrum flax oil for omega 3, that does wonders for dopamine elevation, quite necessary to keep up the blood level of this substance, and my saturated fat is so low ini this diet I have to add a tablespoon of red palm oil , the African variety available in a lot of health food stores now and on line, when you first eat it you will get a dopamine rise due to the body rewarding the tocotrienols form of vitamine E , this version of them unavailable in any other food and they are healful, and this oil does not suppress dopamine, note we evolved eating it in the jungles of Africa, most likely.

Almost all seeds one can buy by themselves, like pumpkin, sunflower, sesame, etc suppress dopamine to some degree,---- and all nuts do IF one eats them beyond a few so as to get too much omega 9 in the blood

I also add a tablespoon of Salute grapeseed oil to supplement my omega six because with this diet it too is too low. So the only added oils I eat are one tablespoon of Salute grapeseed oil, one tablespoon for every hundred pounds of body weight of Spectrum refredgerated flax oil in health food stores, which is 57 percent (read the label ingredients to make sure it is not their version that adds other ingredients like olive oil) and one tablespoon of African red palm oil.

Sweet potatoes (also called yams) crush dopamine

The spices thyme and tumeric and cinnamon suppress dopamine_______ and all spice and nutmeg crush it for a week or more.

Vitamin B 12 must be supplemented in this vegan diet, and I learned the hard way the vegetarian form of vitamin b 12 is useless, as one can also read.

I eat lentils and beans to fill out my protein, it is a myth that one needs animal foods to get enough protein, its very easy to get enough..only 55 grams are needed. and protein is in almost all foods to some degree.

I get a rush of too much unneeded insluin ( I learned what that felt like) which is unhealthy, and makes me feel a little woozy iif I eat fruit b itself, so I alternate bites between fruit, and any grain or any vegetable, without delay, and that near simultaneous mixing avoids this problem. Doing this and doing the rest of my diet, creates so little insulin that I have to eat almost fifty percent more calories than otherwise to keep from losing weight. Same with white rice or white bread, white pasta, only whole grains avoid this insulin effect.Cucumbers, squash , pumpkin and bell peppers are fruits..

If I eat anything, like lycopene in a tomato , or omega 3 in flax oil, or lutein in Kale, or one of the lesser known carotenenoids in yellow squash or carrots, and I am deficient in it, there will be a rush of dopamine encouraging me to eat more of this , and when I get a sufficient supply of the needed substance that reaction does not occur, except in four items, which gives me that rush no matter how many times or how much I eat of them, blackberries, blueberries, black grapes and concord grape juice which does not also contain white grapes like Welches does, the lable must say only ingredient concord grape juice, available in health food stores. I glow with dopamine for an hour or however long it takes to digest all of the deficient substance, I have found with any deficieint substance. With the big four fruits, I just mentoned, it appears that the body can always benefit by more and more, the are the healthiest foods in the world therefore I believe, and the degree of dopamine release they cause is higher than any other food. You can buy frozen blueberries at costco for two dolars a pound, 3 dollars a frozen pound at Ralphs for blackberries, and I eat a pound a day from a blender for quick ease, with a spoonfull of beans or lentils to avoid the big insulin rush, and a recent medical journal article posed the theory that eating purple fruits like blueberries woulld halt Parkinsons by neutralizing the causative free iron in the bloodstream, meet by the way allows all the iron in the meat to get into the bloodstream, whereas vegetarian food has a form of iron that stops going into the body when a sufficient amount of iron is absorbed... I eat strawberries at least once a week too, organic since conventional strawberries are high in pesticides.

I add salsa to a lot of foods for flavor, check the labels for forbidden ingredients. if a label ingredient list says "spices" without saying which ones I call the manufacturer to make sure it doesnt have one of the dopamine suppressors.

So thats it, and if I forgot something, Ill add it in a later post. This is what I found, you may want to do your own tests, but I believe this die will work universally, note t matches what we would have eaten in the African jungle over millions of ears of evolution before we recently ventured out onto the African plains where we started eating meat which evidently hasnt had time to evolve to be healthy and thus is still a dopamine suppressor. Note we would have eaten some birds at least in the form of their eggs in the jungle and snails and frogs perhaps and all of them are ok to eat, close to neutral. however apparently due to so much breeding chicken eggs do suppress dopamine, although chicken itself is close enough to neutral.

Steve Lord

Originally Posted by steve lord

This diet raises dopamine so dramatically, continuously, that I believe it would cause in many Parkinsons sufferers total elimination of symptoms.
Steve Lord