Food-induced changes in brain serotonin synthesis: is there a relationship to appetite for specific macronutrients?
1987
Fernstrom, J.D.
Two hypotheses have evolved in recent years that relate diet-induced changes in brain serotonin (5-HT) synthesis to the appetites for specific macronutrients. One hypothesis states that the animal's chronic selection of dietary protein content is related to the diet's effects on serotonin synthesis, while the other states that the animal's acute selection of dietary carbohydrate depends on the diet's effects on brain serotonin synthesis. This review attempts to evaluate their current status by providing a short background of the evolution of these hypotheses followed by a discussion of the hypotheses themselves and the data offered to support them. In addition, a critical assessment of their continued validity is offered along with suggestions for further evolution and testing. Conclusions are: 1) each new dietary paradigm must first be tested to determine if a postulated set of nutritional-biochemical connections actually exists; 2) the current body of pharmacologic data connecting brain 5-HT release to the appetite for specific macronutrients is far from convincing; and 3) from a nutritional standpoint, there is a rationale for mammals to show some control of protein intake; if they fall below a certain level in the diet, they become undernourished, and eventually malnourished.
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