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American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol 47, 433-439, Copyright © 1988 by The American Society for Clinical Nutrition, Inc

ORIGINAL RESEARCH COMMUNICATIONS

Serotonin precursor influenced by type of carbohydrate meal in healthy adults

PM Lyons and AS Truswell
Department of Biochemistry, University of Sydney, NSW, Australia.

We compared the effects on the ratio of plasma tryptophan to large neutral amino acids (trp:LNAA) of two different carbohydrate meals (sucrose or starch, 120 g) and a contrasting meal of fat + protein given at breakfast to 10 healthy adults. Plasma glucose and insulin were also measured. The trp:LNAA ratio rose after both carbohydrate meals (p less than 0.001). Glucose and insulin peaks were higher after sucrose than starch, and trp:LNAA rose correspondingly higher (sucrose +34% and starch +20%, p less than 0.05). The ratio declined 45% after the fat + protein meal. At 180 min, absolute ratio values were twofold higher after carbohydrate (sucrose 0.133 and starch 0.127) than after fat + protein (0.057). Similar results were found with the same meals given in the evening. Our results suggest that high-carbohydrate meals have an influence on serotonin synthesis. We predict that carbohydrates with a high glycemic index would have a greater serotoninergic effect than carbohydrates with a low glycemic index.




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Copyright © 1988 by The American Society for Nutrition