Posted by Larry Hoover on December 16, 2003, at 12:16:02
In reply to Above post for Larry H too » johnj, posted by johnj on December 16, 2003, at 11:33:44
> Larry,
>
> I forgot to ask, but I wanted to get a scientist's view on tryptophan. I appears it is not the easiest to get in diet. In addition, not the easiest to get to pass the blood brain barrier.Quite correct.
> Therefore, I wonder, is our diet vastly different from what our ancestors ate, me being German and English in backgroug, what is our diet missing? Just curious on what you thought or anybody else out there.
> Thanks
> johnjYes, our diet has substantially changed, and particularly so over the last century. Far faster, IMHO, than we can adapt and evolve along side those changes.
One of the biggest changes is in the realm of carbs. Purified starches (e.g. white flour, corn starch), sugars (often derived from the latter), are not natural foods. There is a direct correlation between depression and sugar consumption, although there are other explanations which may account for the finding (e.g. sugar consumption is a marker for food-processing more generally, or that other dietary components also correlating with sugar are responsible for the observed relationship). A Pearson correlation coefficient of about 0.95 is extraordinarily robust.
Depress Anxiety. 2002;16(3):118-20.
A cross-national relationship between sugar consumption and major depression?
Westover AN, Marangell LB.
Mood Disorders Center (MDOC), Department of Psychiatry, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, USA. anwestover@yahoo.com
We have preliminarily investigated the hypothesis that sugar consumption may impact the prevalence of major depression by correlating per capita consumption of sugar with the prevalence of major depression. Major depression prevalence data (annual rate/100) was obtained from the Cross-National Epidemiology of Major Depression and Bipolar Disorder study [Weissman et al., 1996]. Sugar consumption data from 1991 was obtained from the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations. For the primary analysis, sugar consumption rates (cal/cap/day) were correlated with the annual rate of major depression, using the Pearson correlation coefficient. For the six countries with available data for the primary analysis, there was a highly significant correlation between sugar consumption and the annual rate of depression (Pearson correlation 0.948, P=0.004). Naturally, a correlation does not necessarily imply etiology. Caveats such as the limited number of countries with available data must be considered. Although speculative, there are some mechanistic reasons to consider that sugar consumption may directly impact the prevalence of major depression. Possible relationships between sugar consumption, beta-endorphins, and oxidative stress are discussed. Copyright 2002 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
It is my belief that we (historically) used to eat far more meat relative to carbs. This concept is pretty much embodied in what proponents of the Paleolithic Diet describe. There are also quacks in that philosophical realm, but there is some wisdom too....
Even subtler trends are embodied in our move towards confinement of livestock. Up until fifty years ago, animals foraged for a substantial part of their food supply. Today, they are fed the bare minimum of some key nutrients while being fattened with excesses of grain-based feedstocks (e.g. confinement poultry are fed just enough calcium that their leg bones won't fracture under the weight of the body above them). The resultant meat/dairy/eggs can only supply to us what the critters themselves have received. As a result, we are chronically deficient in e.g. omega-3 fatty acids, as vegetable oil/grain rations are massively over-supplied in omega-6s, but deficient in omega-3s. Free-range animals have very different fatty acid profiles than confined ones.
Eur J Clin Nutr. 2002 Mar;56(3):181-91.
Fatty acid analysis of wild ruminant tissues: evolutionary implications for reducing diet-related chronic disease.Cordain L, Watkins BA, Florant GL, Kelher M, Rogers L, Li Y.
Department of Health and Exercise Sciences, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado 80523, USA. cordain@cahs.colostate.edu
HYPOTHESES: Consumption of wild ruminant fat represented the primary lipid source for pre-agricultural humans. Hence, the lipid composition of these animals' tissues may provide insight into dietary requirements that offer protection from chronic disease in modern humans. METHOD: We examined the lipid composition of muscle, brain, marrow and subcutaneous adipose tissue (AT) from 17 elk (Cervus elaphus), 15 mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus), and 17 antelope (Antilicapra americana) and contrasted them to wild African ruminants and pasture and grain-fed cattle. RESULTS: Muscle fatty acid (FA) was similar among North American species with polyunsaturated fatty acids/saturated fatty acids (P/S) values from 0.80 to 1.09 and n-6/n-3 FA from 2.32 to 2.60. Marrow FA was similar among North American species with high levels (59.3-67.0%) of monounsaturated FA; a low P/S (0.24-0.33), and an n-6/n-3 of 2.24-2.88. Brain had the lowest n-6/n-3 (1.20-1.29), the highest concentration of 22:6 n-3 (elk, 8.90%; deer, 9.62%; antelope, 9.25%) and a P/S of 0.69. AT had the lowest P/S (0.05-0.09) and n-6/n-3 (2.25-2.96). Conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) isomers were found in marrow of antelope (1.5%), elk (1.0%) and deer (1.0%), in AT (deer, 0.3%; antelope, 0.3%) in muscle (antelope, 0.4%; elk, trace), but not in brain. CONCLUSIONS: Literature comparisons showed tissue lipids of North American and African ruminants were similar to pasture-fed cattle, but dissimilar to grain-fed cattle. The lipid composition of wild ruminant tissues may serve as a model for dietary lipid recommendations in treating and preventing chronic disease.
So, yes we are under environmetal stress through diet. And yes, you are what you eat. You may have come across the term "empty calories", which describes energy content of food which is otherwise devoid (or nearly so) in nutritive value. Perhaps those foods alone are enough to send susceptible individuals down a slippery vicious circle spiral down down down.....One of the simplest trials to make is to fortify yourself with the hydrolysed protein supplements often used by weight lifters/body builders. If you feel better after adding this to your diet, then you likely have a protein digestion problem, not a tryptophan usage problem, or deficiency.
I see no possible adverse effects in using equine tryptophan supps. People care more about the health of their horses than they do about other people, IMHO. No way they'd ever use something with toxic potential. No way.
Just my opinionated two cents,
Lar
poster:Larry Hoover
thread:286464
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/alter/20031204/msgs/290548.html