[amirmc]

I thoroughly agree with the second sentence but by putting it together with the first, it's as though you're claiming we can treat medical conditions just by changing diets (which I disagree with -- but I don't think you deserve the downvotes you seem to be getting).

What you eat absolutely affects brain chemistry. Eg friends of mine in grad school were studying depression via tryptophan depletion. They'd give volunteers a homemade protein drink which would reliably knock down serotonin levels. In other words, a milkshake that made you depressed. No drugs required.

[pliny]

>What you eat absolutely affects brain chemistry. Eg friends of mine in grad school were studying depression via tryptophan depletion. They'd give volunteers a homemade protein drink which would reliably knock down serotonin levels. In other words, a milkshake that made you depressed. No drugs required.

They tried to induce depression? That's prison camp science, do your friends study at the Josef Mengele memorial faculty of Medicine?

[amirmc]

No, they're at the University of Cambridge, working with volunteers who've provided informed consent as part of an ethically approved study. An example of one of the papers is below [1]. The serotonin reduction I'm referring to is temporary.

[1] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2775933/