The headline is broadly defensible, but the qualifications matter. Effect sizes vary by population, the strongest claims rest on shorter trials, and credible voices push back on how it's typically framed.
Now, to be clear, I'm not saying that people should use food to medicate their depression. Many people do that reflexively however, they reach for carbohydrate rich foods to blunt their cortisol, because that's indeed what it does. It blunts cortisol when you ingest high carbohydrate foods, in particular starchy foods, and it does increase serotonin, in particular, if those foods rather are rich in the amino acid tryptophan.
Every Sunday: the week’s new conflicts and verdict changes — and nothing else.
Native comments, Twitter mentions, and Reddit threads about this claim — surfaced together so the conversation isn't fragmented across platforms.
Bookmarking — the dossier-vs-overview split is the right call. Most of the time I want overview; sometimes I want receipts.
Would love a "what would change this verdict" RSS feed. Sign me up if it exists.
Dopamine also called 5HT, essentially derives from a precursor called tryptophan. Tryptophan arrives into our system through our diet, okay, tryptophan is an amino acid. Tryptophan is found in Turkey, it's found in carbohydrates. And that should therefore raise the idea, hmm, I wonder if one of the reasons why people who are depressed have such an appetite for carbohydrate late in foods is because they're trying to get more tryptophan, and therefore more serotonin. And indeed that's the case.