The Scribble Pad: Tasty things I am eating, low energy snack foods edition. 23andme. Glycine and gelatin - more good advice from George.
I am going to experiment with purposely eating more gelatin / glycine.
I have long noticed something about broth made me feel "good", and something about certain meats made me feel terribly "bad". I have noticed the following food items are protein based yet agreeable: animal stock/soup broth, animal skins/pork rinds, jello gelatine. I have noticed lean meats often make me feel quite bad. Have intuited it may be defective glutamate processing causing protein intolerance and ketogenic diet helps of course.
I really began to suspect it might be certain amino acids causing the problem when I observed consuming this supplement Prostat 64 significantly and reliably increases energy and mood. The supplement only contains glycerine and various amino acids, namely tons and tons of glycine. It contains about 26 grams of glycine per 100gms of product, which is a huge amount relative to the other aminos...not surprising as it is made of hydrolyzed collagen.
Observing the almost medicinal effects of prostat (radically unlike simply eating "meat" or a high protein food) I began to suspect, then, there might be something to one or more of the amino acids in prostat. I didn't do more research at the time, until George spontaneously informed me that glycine , of which gelatine is quite rich in, regulates methylation and dopamine activity and provided a link to a masterjohn WAPF article regarding such. I admit a bit of skepticism of these claims regarding the exact mechanism of action but at this point I am fairly confident there is something therapeutic for attention/alertness/energy/mood and the answer is glycine. I have replicated the "prostat" effect with gelatin, and in hindsight, I was experiencing this effect very weakly when eating broths and other foods rich in animal collagen.
I must do more research regarding the metabolism and effects of the amino acid glycine, because this potentially holds the key to totally controlling my protein intolerance and a great deal of my mood problems I'm sure as well. It seems to antagonize/correct the constant emotional negativity and energy issues I associate with food and protein in general. Augmenting GABA does not seem to be a likely explanation, because other amino acids like Taurine promote GABA and cannot do what glycine is doing. Taurine is acutely mood stabilizing I find but long term destabilizing unless I take it diligently.
Acutely speaking glycine promotes this feeling of extreme alertness, energy, and wellbeing. It feels somewhat dopaminergic but without any signs of norepinephrine/epinephrine. It also completely squashes appetite and blood sugar instability, perhaps this is via dopaminergic mechanisms in the brain/greater central dopamine sensitivity. All of this is highly speculative at this point but the larger more important piece is that glycine , I am finding, is a common every day nutrient that I need to consciously intake regularly / radically increase dosage of, just like inositol. This is probably a "woo defect" thing normal people likely dont need to concern themselves with as normal intakes of protein provide enough glycine. I suspect I have some genetic liability pertaining to metabolism of glycine, or antagonistic processes, and so benefit very much from purposely increasing glycine.
A fun way to do this is to make a lot of jello and eat it. I have done this and feel much more alert and energetic and mentally centered as I would expect from "prostat". If nothing else, it is nice to have discovered the "prostat" effect is glycine/gelatin which costs only pennies as much as prostat ;) .
