Читать книгу The Mood Cure: Take Charge of Your Emotions in 24 Hours Using Food and Supplements - Julia Ross - Страница 32

Don’t inadvertently sabotage your serotonin defense efforts. Here are some tips on how to avoid common anti-serotonin substances:

1. Stimulants like caffeine (also ephedra, diet pills, ma huang, cocaine, and the like)—They stimulate rather than relax, narrow rather than broaden focus, and inhibit rather than promote sleep. They are serotonin’s number one enemies. If the idea of doing without them appalls you, turn to chapter 4 for better natural ways to get more alert and energized.

2. Aspartame, alias NutraSweet, is enemy number two. One of its primary ingredients, the amino acid phenylalanine, converts to the stimulating substances tyrosine, dopamine, norepinephrine, and adrenaline. Aspartame also contains aspartic acid, one of the most “excitatory” of nutrients. Both aspartic acid and L-phenylalanine compete with and trounce tryptophan and serotonin. If you are low in serotonin, you will need help relaxing and, in the evening, drifting toward sleep, so you should avoid aspartame as well as caffeine, particularly any time after lunch, when serotonin levels always begin dropping for the day.