Dopamine and Your Diet: What's the Link?

Leilla writes:

Recently I've been reading a bit about l-dopa in foods and supplements. There’s also something called the Dopamine Diet. However, I'm struggling to make sense of the information. Can either of these boost your mood? Or is this just another fad?

The reason Leilla may be struggling to make sense of the information is that a lot of what’s circulating around the internet about diet and dopamine doesn’t actually make a lot of sense.

Let’s start with the idea that foods or supplements that provide L-dopa can improve your mood.

Will foods or supplements containing L-dopa boost your mood?

One of dopamine’s primary functions in the brain is to control and coordinate muscle movements. The tremors and jerky movements that are typical of Parkinson’s disease, for example, are caused by low dopamine production in the brain. A drug called Levodopa (or L-dopa) can help reduce Parkinson’s symptoms by increasing dopamine levels in the brain.

I would not recommend adding velvet beans or L-dopa supplements to your diet. For one thing, L-dopa (whether from the bean or a lab) can be neurotoxic and cause significant side effects.

A natural form of L-dopa is also found in a tropical legume called the velvet bean. In fact, extracts from the velvet bean have been used in traditional Ayurvedic medicine to treat Parkinson’s disease. However, I would not recommend adding velvet beans or L-dopa supplements to your diet in an effort to raise your dopamine levels. For one thing, L-dopa (whether from the velvet bean or a lab) can be neurotoxic and cause significant side effects.

Can you boost your dopamine levels with diet?

The Dopamine Diet, a popular book by British chef Tom Kerridge, doesn’t include any recipes for velvet beans. But it does claim to boost your mood by increasing dopamine levels in the brain.

The idea that boosting your dopamine levels will lift your mood seems to be based on a misunderstanding about how dopamine works in the brain.

Diets that are low in refined carbohydrates and other highly processed foods have been correlated with a lower risk of depression. And the Dopamine Diet does focus on whole and minimally processed foods. But there’s very little evidence that we can change our dopamine levels by manipulating our diet.

More to the point, the idea that boosting your dopamine levels will lift your mood seems to be based on a misunderstanding about how dopamine works in the...

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