On Sun, 30 Sep 2007, [EMAIL PROTECTED] went:
I ran across a sentence alluding to expresso and popcorn as caffeine
and serotonin.
I googled 'serotonin popcorn' and indeed found quite a literature on
the relationship, but none of it from very reputable websites.
Does anyone on tips have better info that is more scientific?
My Googlage suggests that it's basically about the carbohydrate
content of the popcorn, not about popcorn specifically, so I guess we
can trace it back to this:
<http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/174/4013/1023>
Science 3 December 1971: 174 (4013): 1023 - 1025
Brain Serotonin Content: Increase Following Ingestion of
Carbohydrate Diet
"In the rat, the injection of insulin or the consumption of
carbohydrate causes sequential increases in the concentrations of
tryptophan in the plasma and the brain and of serotonin in the
brain. Serotonin-containing neurons may thus participate in systems
whereby the rat brain integrates information about the metabolic
state in its relation to control of homeostatis and behavior."
But the assays were done in whole brain, and serotonin has vastly
different effects in different parts of the brain.
And:
<http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/content/full/71/6/1669S>
"Such functional effects [on brain levels of serotonin] are also
reputed to accompany the ingestion of carbohydrates and, in rats,
are said to involve a known action of carbohydrate ingestion to
stimulate brain tryptophan uptake and serotonin synthesis. The
functional effects of administering...carbohydrates are relatively
small, however, compared with the actions produced by administering
potent drugs that enhance serotonin function in the brain, and it is
not currently known whether the smaller effects of...carbohydrates
are functionally useful."
--David Epstein
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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