Andrew Huberman· PhD
In addition to some evidence that it can improve gut health, supplementing with L glutamine may reduce sugar cravings. Need more data but anecdotally, it works.
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In addition to some evidence that it can improve gut health, supplementing with L glutamine may reduce sugar cravings. Need more data but anecdotally, it works.
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One of the reasons why one might want to do that, and again, you should always check with a doctor, especially if you have any predisposition to cancers or you have cancer, many cancers and tumors like glutamine, so that's something to note. But one reason why you might want to supplement with glutamine or consider eating foods that are rich in glutamine, isn't just to keep your appetite in healthy ranges, but as well, glutamine can actually reduce sugar cravings.
But those same neurons will respond to sugars. And so many people who are craving sugar can satisfy that sugar craving by giving the neurons so to speak what they actually want, which are amino acids and essential fatty acids. That includes EPA, but also things like glutamine and amino acid that can really reduce sugar cravings if you take a teaspoon of that, or even a tablespoon of that a few times a day.
There are some data and I should say it's a limited number of studies showing that ingesting glutamine anywhere from one to three, excuse me, teaspoons per day, can help alleviate leaky gut.
if you do try and take this approach of ingesting glutamine to reduce sugar cravings, you want to increase the amount of glutamine that you take somewhat gradually. It can create some gastric distress if you just, you know, I certainly wouldn't take a big table spoon of it, throw it in water and chug it down three times a day.
And there's an interesting literature around the amino acid glutamine in particular supplementing with the amino acid glutamine as it relates to sugar cravings and certainly as it relates to other aspects of the gut in particular leaky gut.
There are many people who are experimenting with supplementing with glutamine several grams per day often even you know five grams distributed through three or four different servings throughout the day in as a way to blunt their sugar cravings.