Thanks for all of the compliments and congratulations on your gains (or, losses, as it were!).

Just out of curiosity, was your 30 lb weight loss a result of the information you read on this site, and the knowledge you gained from our material? I am just curious.

Thanks!

Chris

So far I’ve lost 30lbs as of this writing and I did it all at no cost, a lot of cardio and weight training. I’m more fit, awake and full of energy. It feels awesome. I can’t understand why people don’t make this change. For me personally, (in MY experience), there is no small steps. My motivation and self discipline is fairly strong so in my mind it’s go all the way or don’t try it at all. Your life is the most important thing. If you want to live long and healthy you have to exercise, eat right and keep moving. I would say the only motivator out there is the scale and body fat calipers. I stuck with this coz I saw the numbers drop. That feeling is awesome and the next time you work harder to bring them down more. Now it’s routine and I love it. I’ll stop babbling.
Thanks for your information. Sifting through the web your website really stands out.

1. Remove as much artificial light as possible, especially before bed time (computer, lights, etc)

2. reset sleep cycle properly to go to bed at 9-10 pm

3. eliminate other stressors

4. Make sure you’re taking fish oil (sometimes that can help with depression as well).

5. Eat more good fats, especially saturated

A big question here is how long have you cut out breads from your diet?
Dieting in general (and especially low carb/high protein) can induce some depression in susceptible people. If you’re craving breads I’m under the assumption that you’re cutting out bread/grain (which holistically is a good thing). Chances are overall kcal (Calories) are lower, and this tends to lower serotonin.

On a low carb/high protein approach, neurotransmitters tend to get even moreso affected. Certain proteins (more specifically certain amino acids) are precursors for certain neurotransmitters.

Tryptophan is a precursor for serotonin in the brain, and tyrosine is the precursor for dopamine. Different amino acids sometimes have to compete for transporters, though, and that’s where things get messy.

The BCAAs,pPhenylalanine, tryptophan, and tyrosine all use what’s called the Large Neutral Amino Acid (LNAA) transporter. Because they’re competing for transport, levels of one can affect the availability of the others (if it can’t get transported properly, it can’t be available where it needs to be.

If there’s a large amount of tryptophan compared to the others that use the same transporter, then there will be a larger amount of serotonin in the brain. Less tryptophan relatively, less serotonin.

That’s why we have an issue that can pop up with a higher protein intake: most typical protein sources have a higher concentration of the others.

The carbs actually have a huge role in this, though. The BCAAs are insulin sensitive, so when insulin is up (via more carb taken in), blood BCAA levels go down. If blood BCAA levels are down, they won’t be hogging the LNAA transporter, allowing more tryptophan to get to the brain and consequentially more serotonin produced.

And so vice-versa (where you drop carb and increase high quality protein), you start to lower serotonin from both angles. You’ll have more BCAAs hogging the transporter and less tryptophan to begin with.

And so all that is basically possibly why you crave bread. Kind of an automatic self-medication to try and improve serotonin levels.

If Vitamin D doesn’t seem to help the problem, I’d suggest having one or two free meals throughout the week (once a week or once every 3 or 4 days). It’s not a time to cram in every possible grain and naughty food you can get your hands on, but simply eating a normal meal as you would if you didn’t care about health/fitness/etc (and specifically in your case, bread). This will help both psychology and physiologically.

Source / Further Reading

Good job at writing an article that addresses one of the main problems we have today…improper eating. You did a valuable service to those beginning their journey to better health. I think many a person can gain insight from the information contained in this article.

You made a statement “They are recommended “supplementation” that certainly couldn’t hurt. It is extremely difficult to overdose on vitamins and taking a Multi-V (with a fat source for the fat soluble vitamins) is a great way to cover your bases just in case. Not necessary if your diet is good and balanced but they are cheap and there is no harm so I don’t see why one shouldn’t supplement a multi-v.”

I would have to agree that supplementation is a habit all should add to their diet (in proper doses…you can overdo) because we certainly don’t get the adequate amount of nutrients in our diet…even a good one. Where I would have to disagree is in your above statement. There is much research accumulated on proper supplementation and it’s benefits to leading a healthy lifestyle. And “proper” is key here. Just as we don’t want to put “cheap” food into our bodies…we also don’t want to settle for “cheap” supplementation, because in the long run it turns into expensive urine. So, hence cheap becomes expensive.

Reputable supplementation (that backed by a team of doctors) is paramount to healthy living. Do you want to trust your health to the local CVS over the counter person who knows nothing about supplementation or to a highly reputable team of nutritionists, oncologists,exercise physiologists, and Harvard Hospital Pioneers (Dr.Stanley Dudrick…the very inventor of TPN Nutrition)?

Best of health to you and your staff as you seek to educate the general public on proper nutrition.

Sandy

@Chris: I would remove items from your diet 1 by 1 to see what triggers the effect to see if you can isolate it down, if its important to you…

Old uncooked rice is more beneficial. Rice eaten at night time will produce gas and will be problematic for people with arthritis etc. Rice processed in some other form will probably be more beneficial. Similarly any food cooked with spices alters its properties.
Western world are guilty of seeing food items in isolation and do not understand the balance between various food items. Every decade a new food fad is in vogue whereas in Old cultures, they have a food culture which has remained largely same over thousands of years though we assimilate other food items introduced to us.

Who knows what earliest of human beings ate and how well they survived or how strong were they. But we know that what people in India eat and what activities they indulge in. There are communities in India which consume milk and milk products and grains/vegetable and they are as strong as ox. Other communities eat rice or ragi and they too are extremely healthy. The key is how you prepare, how much you consume and how much you move around!