Food can be as addicting as drugs and we often see mood changes when someone has addictions or out of control cravings.
In this blog post Why do you crave and how do you self-medicate? I covered a simple way for you to figure out why you crave something or why you’re drawn to a particular food, substance, or behavior. I also said that it can be challenging to determine which part of your brain chemistry it’s affecting, and you may not associate cravings with mood issues.
In a series of connected articles I’m going to share some of the research supporting this. If you’ve read my book, The Antianxiety Food Solution, or have been reading my blog posts, you know I like to share research-based evidence. Unfortunately there are not many double blind studies on intervention and symptom management when it comes to amino acids, but I’ll be sharing the research that has been done – focusing on each neurotransmitter and amino acid individually.
Let’s start with this 2013 review titled Pharmacotherapies for Overeating and Obesity. Although the focus of the review is drug-based interventions for finding solutions to food addictions, the mechanisms of food addiction is nicely spelled out: neurotransmitter or brain chemical imbalances. I’d like to add that all of this can be in play even if you are not obese – you just have to love sugar/carbs, wine, coffee etc and eat or drink them to self-medicate.
- “Research has shown that obesity can and does cause changes in behavior and in the brain itself that are very similar to changes caused by drugs of abuse”
- “While food addiction is not the causal agent of all obesity, it is clear that many people no longer eat to survive, but instead survive to eat.”
- “This review considers the importance of the brain’s reward system in food intake.”
- “…research has recently demonstrated that each of these nutrient elements affects specific neurotransmitter systems in the brain providing the potential for targeted pharmacologic treatments” [instead of targeted drug treatments, we can use targeted amino acid supplements]
- “The American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM) now recognizes addictions as a brain disorder, and as such, treatments aimed at addressing food addiction must address the dysfunctions at the level of the brain”
- “There are a number of such therapies under investigation targeting neuropathways and neurotransmitters implicated in addiction, including: dopaminergic [i.e. low or high dopamine, a catecholamine], opioid [i.e. low endorphins], GABAnergic [i.e. low GABA or a need for glutamine], cannabinoid, serotonergic [i.e. low serotonin], and other novel treatment options.”
If this scientific information is of interest to you, I encourage you to read the whole paper here.
In this 2014 study looking at food addiction, in 233 participants, they did find a relationship between food addiction and negative mood i.e. there was: “an inclination toward behaving irrationally while experiencing negative mood states (Negative Urgency) and low levels of task persistence (lack of Perseverance)”
As a reminder here is the table again:
|
How you feel before |
How you feel after |
Brain chemistry imbalance |
Amino acid to supplement |
|
Anxious or stressed |
Calm or relaxed |
Low GABA |
GABA |
|
Depressed or anxious |
Happy or content |
Low serotonin |
Tryptophan or 5-HTP |
|
Tired or unfocused |
Energetic, alert, or focused |
Low catecholamines |
Tyrosine |
|
Wanting a reward or sad |
Rewarded or comforted |
Low endorphins |
DPA (d-phenylalanine) |
|
Irritable and shaky |
Grounded or stable |
Low blood sugar |
Glutamine |
As I said, the research is important, but more important are the incredible results my clients get when they have brain chemical deficiencies and use the amino acids in a targeted manner addressing each area of deficiency.
Meme Grant, GAPS Practitioner, Nutritional Therapist, FNTP, givennewlife.info participated my Amazing Aminos for Ending Emotional Eating program and this is what she said afterwards:
“I still am amazed at how quickly the panic attacks, binge eating, and mood swings disappeared. Tyrosine enabled me to focus and gave me energy to do things again, glutamine allowed me to walk past the gluten and dairy free junk foods, d-phenylalanine [DPA] stopped my comfort eating, tryptophan enabled me to stop my negative thoughts and helped me sleep but the best was when GABA was introduced, the panic attacks disappeared.”
This is why I call them the amazing amino acids. And this why addressing neurotransmitter deficiencies can end food addiction and out-of-control sugar cravings (and at the same time they help to eliminate or reduce anxiety, mood issues and insomnia).
Update June 24, 2016:
Research is now further highlighting the connection between food addiction and depression and anxiety.
In this May 2016 paper, Food addiction associations with psychological distress among people with type 2 diabetes they looked at the relationship between food addiction and psychological distress among 334 patients with type 2 diabetes and found that those:
meeting the FA [food addiction] criterion had significantly higher depression, anxiety, and stress scores as compared to participants who did not meet the FA [food addiction] criterion.
This applies whether or not you have type 2 diabetes and whether or not you are overweight.
As you can see in this blog post: GABA for ending sugar cravings (and anxiety and insomnia), Melissa started taking Source Naturals GABA Calm in anticipation of stressful holiday travel and holiday gatherings. She felt much calmer when she used GABA Calm and discovered that a wonderful side-benefit (we like side-benefits vs side-effects!) was reduced cravings (as well as improved sleep):
An unexpected result was that I stopped craving sweets after about a week of taking it! I didn’t even realize this until I was grocery shopping and out of habit walked towards the ice cream – I stopped and realized I didn’t want ice cream. So I walked toward the chocolate – same reaction. For once in my life, I was not craving sweets. I made truffles for a NYE party and only ate two. But what is really shocking is that the leftovers are still in my refrigerator two days later and I haven’t touched them. I don’t understand what is going on! Can this be the GABA Calm?
She was pleasantly surprised as many of my clients are – she felt more calm, she had better sleep and saw an end to her cravings!
If this is new to you this is what I do with my clients:
- Have them do the Amino Acid questionnaire so they can figure out if they may have low brain chemicals that are affecting both mood and playing a role in food addiction or cravings.
- Review the Amino Acid Precautions
- Have them do a trial of the relevant amino acids, one at a time and monitor how they feel in terms of reduced cravings, less anxiety, improved mood and sleep
Let us know if this resonates with you and if you have tried the amino acids for food addiction or sugar/carb cravings? And what results you have seen?
Trudy, you are mentioned in my webinar Monday night, two episodes of my podcast and I’m sure more to come thanks to you helping me eliminate sugar and caffeine (which I am addicted to) and gluten which is just bad.. and all the other things you did that make me feel good!
Thanks so much Jessica! I’m so pleased you are spreading the word about how amazing the amino acids were for you in helping you quit sugar and caffeine and gluten! You were a poster child for them and I’m so happy you feel so good! 🙂
I’d love to ask you to share which amino acids you used and how they made you feel?
DHEA helped with the caffeine because I had more energy when my adrenals were being repaired with the DHEA and DPA to stop sweet cravings. I only needed a dab of it and I swear it tasted like dark chocolate so it was like a treat (Though that may have been the power of my wishful thinking)worked every time!
Thanks for sharing Jessica. I’m glad the DPA (d-phenylalanine) helped with raising endorphins and stopping your sweet cravings (often “I deserve a reward” ones). Many of my clients think it tastes like dark chocolate so you’re not alone and it wasn’t wishful thinking. The main thing is that it worked every time!
I love this post Trudy! I have been lucky enough to have learned from Julia Ross and now from you through your book – and have cured my own and my patient’s eating issues for many years now using targeted aminos and healthy eating. I find that giving the body the nutrients it really needs cuts out the need for “self-medication”. I was a substance abuse/addiction counselor before I became a Nutritionist and now I do both. Food addiction is no different than any other addiction IMO. You have done your research and your book and your methods are excellent! Amino’s and nutrition have cut out the need for medication and has helped MANY with eating disorders!I am now looking at the links between this and methylation and genetics..very interesting. I highly doubt the huge increase in people on antidepressant medications is due to a deficiency in prozac or wellbutrin etc.. This method works for drug addiction and food addiction equally well – it all goes back to imbalances in the brain. Keep up the GREAT work!!
Juli Keene, CN Licensed Clinical Nutritionist Los Angeles, CA.
Hi Juli
Great to see you here – I know you’re a trailblazer with the work you do! And your substance abuse/addiction background sets you up perfectly to understand the need for addressing food addiction (and as you say, all addictions) with targeted amino acids, other nutrients and nutrition. And yes to this:”it all goes back to imbalances in the brain”!
Yes, methylation is another whole area we need to address, especially when the amino acids don’t work as expected. Our biochemical uniqueness means we approach each person as an individual.
Glad my book has been so helpful for you! I did learn from the great Julia Ross, nutritional pyschologist and pioneer in the use of individual amino acids for addictions and mood.
Trudy
Trudy,
Years ago in massage school we learned about foods that are neurostimulants, and to ask our patients to avoid those foods if they were chronic pain patients or post-surgery. I’ve used this myself many times. It works for arthritis, too. Love this article. Food really can be healing.
Interesting that you learned about this in massage school – it makes total sense though
I have learned so much from you about this topic Trudy. It’s amazing how powerful our Food Mood connection can be. Thank you for sharing this wonderful chart!
Thanks Mira – I’m glad the chart is helpful. And yes to this: “It’s amazing how powerful our Food Mood connection can be.” Unfortunately, it’s just taking too long to be accepted in the medical, mental health, eating disorders and addiction treatment communities. But we’ll get there – there is such a need and so much new research and interest.
The changes in our body, our mood and other areas of our physical and mental make up are real and happen fairly rapidly when we change our way of eating. Removing soda, sugar, processed foods and so much more – which you speak about and write about. My science is seeing it for myself and in others who are close to me. This is so true!
So glad you agree Mitch – we see changes in both mental and physical health.
Hi, I recently stopped alcohol. After a few months of being sober I decided to go the extra mile and eliminate junk food, sugar, and caffeine. On about day 4 of this I cried all day. I could not belive the influence these foods had on me. Between all.of this , I weaned off my psych meds. I used tyrosine, glutamine, and dpa to do this. These aminos saved me !
Lisa
Thanks for sharing and so pleased to hear the amino acids saved you. You were likely self-medicating with the alcohol, junk food, sugar and caffeine. Using the individual amino acids in a targeted way, they balanced your brain chemistry, so you didn’t need to do this any more.
I see many people being able to stop their meds too – because they have addressed the root cause.
Well done for making all these changes! I’m happy for you!
Trudy
Love the chart to keep these symptoms and amino acids straight! The results your clients are getting is remarkable. It is so refreshing to see you and others incorporating nutrition into all areas of wellness, including mental health.
Thanks Tiffany – and yes, the results are nothing short of remarkable if you are deficient. It’s so very rewarding to be able to help so many people this way.
I received this feedback/question via email and am posting here (with permission from Lori Lieberman) so everyone gets the benefits of the discussion:
Yes, as you state, the research, the study mentioned, is solely on medication, not foods as an intervention for modifying neurotransmitters as you seem tonpromise they do. Where’s that research? Apparently, it doesn’t exists maybe in the future. Meanwhile, we should be responsible I our recommendations to the vulnerable sufferers of binge eating and overeating, who might delay more evidence based treatments, such as. CBT and non addiction based strategies.
Lori Lieberman, RD, MPH, CDE, LDN
LoriLiebermanAndAssociates.com
Food-2-eat.com
Lori
Yes, you are correct – this study focuses solely on medication, not foods/nutrients as an intervention for modifying neurotransmitters. I wanted to lay the groundwork for showing the connection between food addiction and the neurotransmitters.
I plan to do a series of connected articles to share some of the research supporting this – focusing on each neurotransmitter and amino acid individually.
For starters here are a few papers on serotonin and 5-HTP:
Eating and Weight Disorders Journal: 5-HTP “increases the feeling of satiety associated with a decrease in BMI” in overweight women http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22142813
Alternative Medicine Review “Therapeutic administration of 5-HTP has been shown to be effective in treating a wide variety of conditions, including depression, fibromyalgia, binge eating associated with obesity, chronic headaches, and insomnia.” http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9727088
Also, Dr Kenneth Blum (and colleagues) has done a great deal of research on Reward Deficiency Syndrome. Here is a quote from an article co-authored by him http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24077767
“The brain reward circuitry includes neurotransmitters involved in ‘feeling good’ that are produced by the brain reward cascade (BRC), which proceeds from serotonin to enkephalins (including endorphins), opiate receptors, GABA, and culminates with dopamine; the ‘pot of gold’ payoff at the end of the ‘reward’ rainbow. When levels of these “feel good” chemicals are low or blocked from the brain’s receptors, stress, pain, discomfort, intolerance, agitation and excessive reward deficiencies cause increased cravings and/or a desire for satisfaction from aberrant reward-seeking behaviors (RDS) up to an including pathological violence. So, essentially, addiction went from being solely a ‘software problem’ requiring fellowship and psychological talk therapy programs (i.e. 12 Step, etc.), often including heavy medication, to a hardware problem requiring nutrigenomic intervention. Nutrigenomic science studies the influence of nutrition on gene expression and the effect that has on health. Rather than a single (loci) target for a drug via a single mechanism of action by a single ‘active ingredient’ molecule (‘Reductionist’ paradigm), nutrigenomic intervention is a ‘systems neurobiology’ approach and can promote balanced brain chemistry and healthy gene expression”
I hope this helps – stay tuned for more blog posts on this topic!
Trudy
I took GABA Calm for about 6 months and was able to discontinue it. I was wondering if there is ever a time when we should go back on it and if it’s something I need to use routinely on a schedule for maintenance here and there.
Salena
I assume you stopped because it helped and you were no longer anxious?
Many of my clients find they may need GABA support in the future and add it (and other aminos and other nutritional support) when the need arises
Can GABA help fight bulimia?
Anna
GABA can help fight bulimia is there is an anxiety aspect to the binge eating and this is driving the overeating. The anxiety would be the low GABA type ie physical tension-like anxiety.
There may also be low serotonin anxiety which is more worry-ruminating type. In this instance tryptophan or 5-HTP would help with the anxiety and lack of confidence. Serotonin support with inositol may also help with the compulsions and obsessing over food.
Also, DPA may help if there is a low-endorphin comfort/reward/emotional pain/numbing aspect to the binge eating.
If you are new to the amino acids (and other anxiety nutrition solutions like gluten/sugar/caffeine removal, blood sugar control, gut health, pyroluria etc) my book “The Antianxiety Food Solution” is a great place to start. More here https://www.everywomanover29.com/store/aafsbook.html
Bulimia is complex and other aspects (nutritional deficiencies, gut health etc) should also be looked into, together with emotional/psychological support, and addressing any harms caused by throwing up or the excessive use of laxatives or over-exercising.
Apologies for the delay in your comment approval and my response. We had a computer glitch where a large number of comments were hidden from view in a spam folder. It mostly affected new folks who were commenting for the first time but it’s hopefully resolved now.