Introduction: The Happy Diet
Recurring daily stressors often negatively impact your mental health. How about a diet that promotes dopamine production and dopamine retention? I am by no means an expert on nutrition, however recently came across a book called ‘The Dopamine Diet’, which made me curious.
I decided to explore it in more detail. The dopamine diet was coined by UK star-chef Tom Kerridge. He started his cooking career in the year 1991 and he currently owns a total of eight highly-reputable restaurants in England. He has appeared on many cooking shows all over the world and has made quite a large impact in the world of cooking.
What is the dopamine diet? What is the importance of dopamine in the brain and how can we facilitate its production? Let us dive deeper into the topic to get those questions answered.
The Importance of Dopamine for Your Health
Dopamine is one of the main brain chemicals that are responsible for good mood, the feelings of pleasure and stimulates your brain’s rewards system.
Functions of Dopamine
Dopamine is generated in various areas of the brain (substantia nigra, ventral tegmental area, and hypothalamus). It is considered an important messenger molecule for your brain’s nerve cells and is important for proper brain function. Your brain relies on a continuous supply of dopamine. It carries out important bodily functions, including proper motor control (the initiation and control of body movements), motivation, arousal, and reinforcement. Additionally, it is responsible for feelings of reward (SOURCE).
In order to facilitate the production of dopamine in your brain, it is recommended that you follow a diet rich in protein and low in saturated fats (SOURCE), exercise regularly, get sufficient sleep, expose yourself to enough sunlight (or take a vitamin D supplement). Keep doing the things that you enjoy doing and provide you with a sense of purpose (SOURCE).
Slowing Dopamine Breakdown
If you are suffering from low levels of dopamine, your mental health can suffer. Frequently, moods are negatively affected and people feel less of a purpose in their lives. Hence they resort to medication, which can often increase its production. Other medications increase the lifetime of dopamine in the brain, thereby making it more difficult for your brain to break it down.
Diets that reduce the speed of dopamine breakdown in the brain are rich in natural MAO inhibitors. This causes you to take advantage of higher levels of the happy hormone for longer periods of time.
How Dopamine Supports the Exercise Euphoria Process
The dopamine diet supports the production of endorphins during our workouts. It does so by priming your brain prior to exercise to release greater amounts of the happy hormone’ dopamine. How, you ask? The Tom Kerridge diet is high in the amino acid tyrosine. Tyrosine plays an essential role in the development of dopamine, as it offers the building blocks for dopamine creation.
This supports euphoria generation following exercise significantly, as dopamine plays a key role in the exercise euphoria generation process. By creating two sources of dopamine production on a regular basis, hormones fighting against your mental health do not stand a chance.
Recommended Foods in the Dopamine Diet
Chef Tom Kerridge describes his diet the dopamine diet because it incorporates foods facilitating the production of dopamine in the brain, thereby boosting your rewards centre and mood. What foods are part of the dopamine diet?
You may have guessed that the dopamine diet does not consist of a bunch of processed foods, red meats, and sodium-rich foods. Instead, it relies on protein-rich foods high in the amino acid tyrosine. Food groups to avoid in this diet are starchy carbs, as well as caffeinated beverages and alcohol.
This holistic approach towards dieting makes it easy to create a well-balanced, healthy eating plan that satisfy your food cravings. In his book, he also strongly suggests that you eat three meals each day at similar times. This helps to prevent sudden swings in mood and avoid sudden increases in appetite, often leading to unhealthy food cravings and temporary dopamine deficiency.
Supporting Weight Loss
The dopamine diet has also shown to be able to result in weight loss, as the diet is in favour of plenty of protein. This results in smaller portions making you feel fuller for longer. As a result, it will help to prevent you from consuming unhealthy snacks following your meals.
Recommended Food & Drink List
Tom Kerridge recommends that you increase your protein intake during all meals of your day. A good breakfast that will stimulate your dopamine pathways include a meal high in dairy products, nuts and fresh fruit. You can read the complete list of recommended foods to rely on during the dopamine diet below.
- Fresh fruit
- Sources of unprocessed, lean protein, (e.g. salmon, oily fish)
- Dairy products (milk, yogurt, cheese)
- Eggs
- Nuts (Almonds, Walnuts)
- Dark chocolate (e.g. chocolate mousse)
- Unsaturated fats (walnuts, sesame and olive oil, olives, avocados, flax seeds)
- Green vegetables
- Brown Rice
- Onions
- Fried halloumi cheese
- Soups (Creamy cauliflower soup, mint soup)
- Foods / drinks high in Vitamin B6
- Green tea
In addition to the foods listed above, it is also recommended that you follow the national food guide and that you tailor your diet towards your personal nutritional needs. If you have difficulty with this, you should contact a local nutritionist to provide you with assistance in designing your ideal diet plan.
Where to Purchase his Book
If you would like to know more about the dopamine diet, as well as great recipes, further tips and tricks to make your meals tasting delicious, I highly recommend that you check out “the dopamine diet” by Tom Kerridge. In his book, he displays a detailed diet plan that promote the release of dopamine so that you are feeling great all day.
Foods to Avoid on the Dopamine Diet
Beside the large group of foods recommended in the Dopamine diet, there are a few food groups you should avoid. These foods can counteract dopamine production in the brain. This could result in mood swings, feelings of laziness, lack of motivation and sadness.
- Fatty foods
- Processed sugar
- Starchy carbohydrates
- Refined carbohydrates
- Alcohol
- Caffeine
Best Exercises to Support Dopamine Production
In addition to consuming a healthy and balanced diet that is high in lean protein, vitamins and unsaturated fats, it is important to keep moving. Good news for anyone that dreads exercise is that increased dopamine production will lead to an increase in natural motivation.
If you are a busy professional, check out this article on quick workouts for busy professionals. Research shows that high intensity exercise is correlated with improved mood compared to lower intensity exercise (SOURCE). If you want to rely on quick, intense workouts, I suggest you give blood flow occlusion training a chance. Some of you may prefer running as a method of staying fit and healthy. In that case, I suggest you have a look at my series on how to efficiently recreate a runner’s high.
Dangers of Prolonged Lack of Dopamine
A lack of dopamine production by the brain can worsen certain medical conditions and bring about signs and symptoms of poor mental health. Below you can find a list of medical conditions and symptoms that are negatively affected by a lack of dopamine in the brain.
- Parkinson’s disease: individuals that suffer from Parkinson’s disease lack dopamine. It is currently unclear whether or not dopamine-rich diets can help slow down disease progression.
- Weight Gain: A way of compensating for worse mental health, people often rely on unhealthy foods high in sugar and saturated fats. This will lead to sudden weight gain due to eating foods with poor nutritional value, as well as due to overeating.
- Mood Swings: Sudden drops in dopamine levels cause moods to shift frequently throughout the day. Ever notice how when you are eating healthy and exercise regularly you feel more content throughout your day? This is because of higher levels of dopamine within your brain.
- Major depressive disorder: Once dopamine levels are low for longer periods of time, it is easy to enter a downward spiral regarding your mental health. Lower levels of happy hormones cause increases in stress hormones and feelings of sadness, which can lead to anxiety and depression. If this persists for long enough, you may be at risk for major depressive disorder, which can be difficult to defeat.
- Lack of Motivation: Beside pleasure and lust, dopamine is greatly responsible for feelings of motivation. Low circulating levels of dopamine, therefore, result in lack of motivation and make it more difficult to get you closer towards your life goals.
Unhealthy Habits
Dopamine release is typically lower in individuals that primarily rely on a diet high in sugar and fatty foods. They have shown to suppress dopamine production in the long-term as it typically leads to unhealthy eating habits such as overeating. If you think that you may be suffering from chronic low dopamine levels, I would recommend to make the dopamine diet a long-term diet, and to cook meals that continuously stimulate your dopamine receptors.
Conclusion
Dopamine is an important messenger molecule in the brain. It is responsible for feelings of pleasure, reward, motivation, arousal, as well as the control of movement. A dopamine-producing diet can prevent sudden mood swings, weight gain, depression, as well as diseases such as Parkinson’s disease. Tom Kerridge’s dopamine diet described a high-quality healthy diet that is rich in lean protein, fresh fruits, vegetables, dairy and nuts. He recommends avoiding foods including processed meats, refined carbohydrates, alcohol and caffeine, as they have shown to decrease dopamine production in the brain. It is highly recommended that you support dopamine production through regular, endorphin-inducing exercise to continuously challenge your brain’s pleasure centres. Ready to eat yourself happy?
Anonymous
Great “food” for thought! Especially for new years resolutions and goals!