I attended an inspiring nutrition seminar this past weekend with Dr. Stuart White, a chiropractor and nutritionist out of Houston, Texas. The premise of the seminar was all about stabilizing moods, and how if we can do that, we may be able to drop addictive substances like coffee, sugar, cigarettes–and even harder drugs like alcohol and cocaine! Addictions involve pleasure and reward centers in your brain, and Dr. White asserts we can achieve stimulation of those centers in the brain with proper nutrition.

I learned a lot in the seminar and I can’t repeat it all here, but one of Dr. White’s basic recommendations is that pretty much everyone needs to increase protein in their diet. Why? Because protein foods contain amino acids, and amino acid are the building blocks for things like dopamine and serotonin–neurotransmitters that elicit feelings of contentment and pleasure.

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