🇩🇪 “Happiness makers” in food – all just a myth?

• NutriHealth

This text has been translated. The full article is posted in German.

“Happiness makers” in food – all just a myth?
The idea of “mood food” sounds tempting: eat certain foods and your mood improves. But is the recipe for happiness really that simple?

In this cold season, not only is the weather often gloomy, but many people’s moods are as well. How nice it would be to turn on the inner light and lighten the mood with a few happy hormones. It’s supposed to work quite simply through food, with so-called “mood food”. According to this, people only need to eat the right foods, such as nuts or dark chocolate, and their mood brightens.

The background: Certain foods contain a lot of those basic protein substances, the amino acids, from which the messenger substances serotonin and dopamine are formed. Serotonin has a relaxing effect and promotes sleep. Dopamine increases the ability to concentrate and the driving force. Serotonin is the amino acid tryptophan, while dopamine is tyrosine and phenylalanine. They are found particularly in protein-rich foods, such as cheese, fish, meat and nuts. Dark chocolate is rich in tryptophan.

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