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Have you wondered what are the best foods or supplements to eat to raise your levels of serotonin naturally?

First, what is serotonin? Serotonin is a neurotransmitter in the brain responsible for producing feelings of happiness and relaxation. When you have ample supply of serotonin you feel like everything is ok in your life and that there is nothing to worry about. You are happy and relaxed. The opposite of this state is a feeling of depression.

So how to increase serotonin naturally? Serotonin is produced from the amino acid tryphtophan. But before you simply go to eat more protein to increase your intake of amino acids, however, it is important to understand how serotonin is made in the brain. Simply increasing your protein intake can actually do more harm than good.

First, everything you eat gets digested. No matter what you eat, if your digestive system is not functioning well your body will have a hard time absorbing nutrients or breaking down proteins from your food.

Therefore, some of the best supplements that you can eat to help your brain to produce more serotonin are supplements that actually help your digestive system to function better. For example, some supplements to help your gut to function better are enzymes and probiotics.

Secondly, it is the amino acid tryptophan that is the pre-cursor for making serotonin. However, in order for trypthophan to enter through the blood-brain barrier it needs to compete against other longer chain amino acids. In other words, eating too much protein can increase the amount of longer chain amino acids making it harder for tryptophan to get through the blood-brain barrier for your brain to make serotonin. This is why eating too much protein is not be the best idea to helping your brain to make more serotonin.

So to help your brain to convert tryptophan to serotonin it is best to eat only moderate or small amounts of proteins with a high concentration of tryptophan like milk along with some carbohydrates.

By eating only moderate amount of protein, tryptophan then has a better chance to get through the blood-brain barrier to be utilized by the brain for production of serotonin.

Here are some good serotonin foods and serotonin supplements to consider adding your diet. First, many mushrooms contain serotonin. Secondly, some foods high in tryptophan are milk, whole grains, bananas, eggs and turkey. Eating foods with complex starch along with the tryptophan will then help tryptophan to get to the brain to be converted to serotonin. This will ultimately then make you feel better and more relaxed in your life.

Supplement called 5-HTP can also help. 5-HTP is a next precursor in the line to becoming serotonin and it is a natural health supplement sold in many natural foods stores. According to some studies 5-HTP alone has been shown to equal or exceed in performance to Prozac without any harmful side-effects.

And there you have it, few ideas to help you increase your levels of serotonin naturally. Give them a try!