Nutritional Tables to Improve Mood Disorders

Bravo R¹*, Ugartemendia L¹, Cubero J², Rodriguez AB¹ and Barriga C¹

¹Department of Physiology, University of Extremadura, Spain

²Health Education Laboratory, Experimental Science Education Area, University of Extremadura, Spain

*Corresponding author: Bravo R, Neuroimmunephysiology & Chrononutrition Group, Department of Physiology, Faculty of Science, University of Extremadura, Badajoz, Spain

Received: August 06, 2015; Accepted: August 17, 2015; Published: August 24, 2015

Short Communication

Chrononutrition is a field of Chronobiology that establishes the principle of consuming foodstuffs at times of the day when they are more useful for health, improving, therefore, biological rhythms and physical performance [1]. Every trial carried out by our research group in this field has shown that some nutrients may influence some circadian functions, but they may also be positive for health in ageing and some neurological disorders [2].

But not only ageing or neurological diseases make us suffer from chronodisruption. In fact, mainly, there are two causes of chronodisruption, they are chronic changes in timing of light and behavioral activity (physical activity, rotating shift work, meal times, etc.) [3]. When the sleep/wake circadian rhythm shows chronodisruption symptoms and becomes uncoupled with the endogenous timing system, normal day/night variations in many hormones and neurotransmitters are altered and may have adverse health consequences [4]. Our research group, in this communication, aims to provide some nutritional tables to be taken into account for mood disorders due to the strong and growing community interest in the effects of nutrition and dietary factors on mental health.

Triptophan-enriched diets may achieve beneficial effects on serotonin or melatonin levels with their consequent positive influence on health [5]. In this way, our research group has searched scientific databases to elaborate tables of foods whose composition shows high levels of tryptophan, serotonin, or melatonin. To carry out this objective we looked for tryptophan content food in USDA database, related to indoleamines riched food we used the descriptors “serotonin” and “melatonin” in PubMed, Science Direct and Google Scholar scientific databases.

We recommend tables showed in this letter for the design of diets to improve sleep disorders, those neurological diseases related with impairments in indolamine levels, or psychological disorders like anxiety or depression.

Moreover, to design a triptophan-enriched diet it is important to take into account that meals must have at least some glycaemic effect in the blood. Tryptophan ingested with glucides is better transported into the blood. This is provoked by insulin secretion which induces the entry of Large Neutral Amino Acids (LNAA: leucine, isoleucine, tyrosine, phenylalaline and valine) into muscle cells [6]. This fact is particularly relevant due to tryptophan being transported bound to albumin, such as LNAA; in this way a glycaemic meal with high levels of tryptophan should be better at increasing serotonin and melatonin levels in blood (Tables 1-3).

Table 1: Food with high levels of tryptophan amino acid. Sources: United State Department of Agriculture (USDA), USDA Nutrient Database for standard reference and [7].




  
    Food 
    Tryptophan content 
  
  
    Seeds:
      Winged beans
      Soybeans
      Roasted pumpkin
      Sesame
     
      0.762 g/100gr
      0.591 g/100 g
      0.569 g/100 g
      0.371 g/100g
  
  
    Walnuts
    0.32 g/100g
  
  
    Parsley
    0.475 g/100g
  
  
    Cheese:
      Mozzarella
      Chedar
      Parmesan
      Edam
      Gouda
     
      0.571 g/100g
      0.558 g/100g
      0.482 g/100g
      0.352 g/100g
      0.352 g/100g
  
  
    Cod
    0.704 g/100g
  
  
    Tuna
    0.34 g/100g
  
  
    Elk
    0.545 g/100g
  
  
    Pork:
      Bacon
      Loin
      Ham
      Sirloin
      Chops
      Liver
     
      0.464 g/100g
      0.386 g/100g
      0.374 g/100g
      0.37 g/100g
      0.369 g/100g
      0.366 g/100g
  
  
    Rabbit:
      Wild
      Domesticated
     
      0.436 g/100g
      0.401 g/100g
  
  
    Goat
    0.403 g/100g
  
  
    Beef:
      Round
      Liver
      Porterhouse steak
     
      0.402 g/100g
      0.368 g/100g
      0.355 g/100g
  
  
    Chicken
    0.386 g/100g
  
  
    Wild boar
    0.38 g/100g
  
  
    Veal:
      Liver
     
      0.361 g/100g
  
  
    Quail breast
    0.354 g/100g
  
  
    Horse
    0.349 g/100g
  
  
    Spiny lobster
    0.368 g/100g
  
  
    Cuttlefish
    0.364 g/100g
  
  
    Octopus
    0.33 g/100g
  
  
    Cherry:
      Navalinda
      Van
      Pico limón
      Bourlat
      Ambrun�s
      Pico Negro
      Pico colorado
     
      82.65 ± 4.29 ppm
      68.58 ± 3.28 ppm
      62.69 ± 5.61 ppm
      61.36 ± 5.81 ppm
      57.24 ± 7.11 ppm
      37.76 ± 2.43 ppm
      36.53 ± 9.84 ppm



Table 1:  Food with high levels of tryptophan amino acid. Sources: United State
Department of Agriculture (USDA), USDA Nutrient Database for standard
reference and [7].

Table 2: Food with indoleamine serotonin high levels. Sources: references [8,9].




  
    Food 
    Serotonin content 
  
  
    Tomato
    221.9 μg/g
  
  
    Cherry tomato
    156.1 μg/g
  
  
    Chinese cabbage
    110.9 ± 22.5 μg/g
  
  
    Spinach
    34.4 ± 2.4 μg/g
  
  
    Plantain
    30 ± 7.5 μg/g
  
  
    Cherry:
      Navalinda
      Pico colorado
      Burlat
      Pico Negro
     
      30.7 ng/100g
      36.6 ng/100g
      12.6 ng/100g
      2.8 ng/100g
  
  
    Hot pepper
    17.9 μg/g
  
  
    Chicory
    8.5 ± 3.2 μg/g
  
  
    Green onion
    8 ± 0.8 μg/g
  
  
    Kiwi fruit
    5.9 ± 0.9 μg/g
  
  
    Plums
    4.7 ± 0.8 μg/g
  
  
    Strawberry
    3.77 ± 0.66 μg/g
  
  
    Lettuce
    3.3 ± 0.6 μg/g
  
  
    Paprika
    1.8 μg/g
  
  
    Egg plant
    1.5 – 12 μg/g
  
  
    Wild maracuja
    1.4 - 3.5 μg/g
  
  
    Papaya
    1.1 - 2.1 μg/g
  
  
    Avocados:
      Haas
      Fuerte
      Booth
     
      1.6 ± 0.40 μg/g
      1.5 ± 0.21 μg/g
      0.2 ± 0.004 μg/g
  
  
    Pineapple
    1.5 μg/g
  
  
    Grapefruit
    0.9 μg/g
  
  
    Honeydew melón
    0.6 μg/g
  
  
    Olives
    0.2 μg/g



Table 2:  Food with indoleamine serotonin high levels. Sources: references [8,9].

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Citation:Bravo R, Ugartemendia L, Cubero J, Rodriguez AB and Barriga C. Nutritional Tables to Improve Mood Disorders. Ann Depress Anxiety. 2015; 2(5): 1059. ISSN : 2381-8883

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Food	Melatonin content
White mustard	189 ng/g
Black mustard	129 ng/g
Almond	39 ng/g
Fennel	28 ng/g
Cherry	15-18 ng/g
Green cardamom	15 ng/g
Anise	7 ng/g
Oat	1.8 ng/g
Indian corn	1.3 ng/g
Rice	1 ng/g
Radish	0.6 ng/g
Tomato	0.5 ng/g
Banana	0.5 ng/g
Ginger	0.5 ng/g
Cabbage	107.4 ± 7.3 pg/g
Carrot	55.3 ± 11.9 pg/g
Pineapple	36.2 ± 8.4 pg/g
Onion	31.5 ± 4.8 pg/g
Cucumber	24.6 ± 3.5 pg/g
Kiwi fruit	24.4 ± 1.7 pg/g
Strawberry	12.4 ± 3.1 pg/g
Asparagus	9.5 ± 3.2 pg/g

Nutritional Tables to Improve Mood Disorders

Short Communication

References