Feeling blue? Mung beans, lobster, turkey, asparagus, sunflower seeds, cottage cheese, pineapple, tofu, spinach and bananas could lift your spirits.

    A diet high in tryptophan - an amino acid converted by the body into the feel-good chemical serotonin - can improve mood and wellbeing, pediatrician and natural health expert Caroline Longmore said.

    The body cannot produce tryptophan so unless we get enough through our diets, we may suffer a deficiency, leading to low serotonin levels which are associated with mood disorders, anxiety, cravings and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).

    "Following a diet which contains foods rich in naturally occurring serotonin will improve your mood, leaving you energised and in a state of harmony and wellbeing," Dr Longmore said.

    Mental health experts say while the theory behind tryptophans for improving mood is solid, its use by depressed patients has a chequered history in Australia.

    Gordon Parker, from the Black Dog Institute, said tryptophan supplements were widely used before the 1990s but after a number of patients suffered serious side effects from a contaminated batch, they were temporarily taken off the market.

    Professor Parker said while some patients strongly believed such supplements were beneficial, scientific evidence was lacking.

    "I would say it's something that can be useful for some people but the quality control varies enormously," he said.

    In her ebook The Serotonin Secret, Dr Longmore claims the best way to get optimum tryptophan levels is through a carefully devised eating plan. She rates dozens of foods for their levels of tryptophan.

    Written with Australian-trained medical scientist and naturopath Katrin Hempel, the book has 50 recipes designed to solve serotonin imbalance without drugs. The concept works on the same principle as selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors (SSRIs), such as popular antidepressant Prozac.

    Britain's Food and Mood Project recommends eating chicken, sardines, turkey, salmon, fresh tuna, nuts and seeds to boost serotonin levels. But Associate Professor Michael Baigent, clinical adviser to Beyondblue, said there was only low-level evidence to suggest tryptophans have a medical effect.

    National statistics show that in any 12 months, almost 17percent of adult Australians have a mental disorder with anxiety, depression, bipolar and substance misuse the most common.

    感到憂郁嗎？綠豆，龍蝦，火雞，蘆筍，葵花籽，凝乳，菠蘿，豆腐，菠菜，香蕉，可以讓你振奮。

    兒科醫生和自然健康專家Caroline Longmore 說，富含色氨酸的飲食可以改善情緒。色氨酸是一種氨基酸，可以轉化成一種能產生“好情緒”的化學血清素。

    人的身體無法產生色氨酸。除非我們能從飲食中攝取足夠的色氨酸，否者我們可能因缺乏色氨酸而導致血清素過低。伴隨而來的通常還有情緒不穩，焦慮，煙癮，以及腸易激綜合征（IBS).

    Longmore博士說，攝取富含自然血清素的飲食可以改善你的情緒，使你充滿活力，并保持和諧安寧的狀態。

    心理專家說，血清素改善情緒的理論是純粹的，但是在澳大利亞，抑郁癥患者對它的使用卻有著曲折的歷史。

    黑狗研究所的Gordon Parker說，血清素補品在20世紀90年代之前就已經得到廣泛使用。但是很多患者因使用過量而產生嚴重的副作用。因此，血清素補品暫時退出了市場。

    Parker教授說，有些患者非常相信，這種補品是有益處的，但是缺乏科學證據。

    他說，“我要說的是，它可能對有些人有用，但它的質量控制差別很大。”

    Longmore醫生在她的電子書《羥色胺的秘密》中，說獲取優質色氨酸的最佳方法是通過飲食攝取。她列舉了許多含色氨酸的食物。

    參與編輯的還有澳大利亞受訓的醫學家Katrin Hempel。書中共提到了50中解決血清素失衡的菜譜（不含藥劑）。它們同選擇性5-羥色胺再攝取抑制劑，如抗憂郁的百憂解的原理是一樣。

    英國的食物和情緒工程建議食用雞肉，沙丁魚，火雞，鮭魚，新鮮鮪魚，堅果和種子，以提高羥色胺的含量。但Beyondblue的臨床顧問副教授Michael Baigent說，很少證據證明色氨酸有醫療效果。

    全國統計表明，在任何12個月內，幾乎有17%澳洲成人有精神錯亂與焦慮，抑郁，躁狂和藥物濫用的癥狀，其中最常見的是藥物濫用。