Sim
14th May, 2006, 07:54 AM
If you are reading this Pixiebell I am interested having read that you are a vegan.
For the past 10 years I have been a lacto vegetarian, I dont eat meat, fish, eggs etc, but I do take some milk sometimes, but not alot, mainly just the odd bit of cheese. This timing does coincide with problems I have had.
Anyway the reason I was interested to talk to you is because i looked into 5htp and it is based on tryptophan being a precursor of serotonin isnt it.
Well I was interested to find out that tryptophan is an essential amino acid, a part of protein that cant be made in the body but has to be ingested. Well looking into my vegetarian dietary habits and looking at the recommended amounts of things that the body needs to function, it seemed to make alot of sense to me that I would be lacking in serotonin if I wasnt gettng enough of all the essential amino acids, due to a low protein intake.
I found that the rda is 40-50g of protein a day, which there is NO way my mostly carbohydrate laden diet was providing me with.
4 oz cheese is only 20g protein, and you have to eat a whole lot of pulses and rice to get the rda and all the essentail amino acids including tryptophan to reach the rda.
For the last month I am trying to redress the balance by weighing out my food and making sure I get 15g of protein at each meal sitting 3 times a day.
In fact it might not just be vegetarians who may be over eat carbs instead of protein, due to health scares about red meat and things, most people seem to think they are being healthier eating lots of brown bread fruit and veg than protein sources. Even meat eaters might find if they do some calculations that they are not meeting the rda of protein unless they eat a good portion of meat at each of 3 meals a day.
If this is the case and so many people say that the tryptophan in 5HTP is helping them feel better, maybe this could be achieved also by looking at diet and making sure that enough protein is being taken?
What do you think?
For the past 10 years I have been a lacto vegetarian, I dont eat meat, fish, eggs etc, but I do take some milk sometimes, but not alot, mainly just the odd bit of cheese. This timing does coincide with problems I have had.
Anyway the reason I was interested to talk to you is because i looked into 5htp and it is based on tryptophan being a precursor of serotonin isnt it.
Well I was interested to find out that tryptophan is an essential amino acid, a part of protein that cant be made in the body but has to be ingested. Well looking into my vegetarian dietary habits and looking at the recommended amounts of things that the body needs to function, it seemed to make alot of sense to me that I would be lacking in serotonin if I wasnt gettng enough of all the essential amino acids, due to a low protein intake.
I found that the rda is 40-50g of protein a day, which there is NO way my mostly carbohydrate laden diet was providing me with.
4 oz cheese is only 20g protein, and you have to eat a whole lot of pulses and rice to get the rda and all the essentail amino acids including tryptophan to reach the rda.
For the last month I am trying to redress the balance by weighing out my food and making sure I get 15g of protein at each meal sitting 3 times a day.
In fact it might not just be vegetarians who may be over eat carbs instead of protein, due to health scares about red meat and things, most people seem to think they are being healthier eating lots of brown bread fruit and veg than protein sources. Even meat eaters might find if they do some calculations that they are not meeting the rda of protein unless they eat a good portion of meat at each of 3 meals a day.
If this is the case and so many people say that the tryptophan in 5HTP is helping them feel better, maybe this could be achieved also by looking at diet and making sure that enough protein is being taken?
What do you think?