The article of Assoc. Prof. Dr. Murat Doğan, deputy dean of Istanbul Gelişim University (IGU), Faculty of Fine Arts (FAF), and lecturer of the Department of Gastronomy and Culinary Arts, was published in the magazine of Food Taste. Doğan talked about the effects of physical activity and healthy eating on a happy life in this month's article.
Dear readers, we have come to the end of a year with its bitterness and sweetness. As we all know, we have survived a great crisis such as Covid-19 as the whole world. The pandemic process once again showed us that the beginning and beginning of everything is health. Just as companies and governments make annual evaluations at the end of the year, we also need an evaluation. When we think about it from our perspective, what has the year 2022 brought us financially? These are of course very important, but as I said at the beginning, they don't matter unless we are healthy.
Yes, the way to be healthy and therefore happy and peaceful is through a healthy diet. Eating healthy, on the other hand, is a phenomenon that goes through eating less and less. Also, we need to take this criterion very seriously. The more calories, or in other words, the more energy we spend, the more food we have to load. In short, it is very unlikely that we will be healthy unless we move. The ancients used to say that movement is abundant. Scientists, on the other hand, always emphasize that we should move away from a sedentary life. You will rightly ask me: Sir, what is sedentary life? How do we avoid it?
A sedentary lifestyle is one in which physical activity is absent or very irregular. Today's living conditions impose this kind of life on us. We can't do without a car even when we go to work, the market, and the shortest distance. In general, we spend long periods in front of the TV, internet, or computer. All these show that we have adopted a sedentary lifestyle. And no matter how healthy we eat, this sedentary lifestyle makes us unhappy and restless. You may say, sir, you are exaggerating too much, how can exercise and being active have anything to do with being happy? You are trying to prove everything with scientific evidence. Where is the evidence? How does being active in addition to healthy eating make us happy? As we all know, a sufficient amount of serotonin is required for us to be happy. In other words, the secretion of a sufficient amount of serotonin hormone in our brain makes us feel happy and peaceful. Tryptophan amino acid is indispensable in the formation of this hormone and it supports the formation of the happiness hormone by using biochemical pathways.
If we think in terms of our food and drink, tryptophan amino acid is highly found in meats, aged cheese, chocolate, etc. It is abundant in food. Then those who consume foods containing a lot of tryptophan amino acids should be happy and peaceful, right? Unfortunately, it doesn't! But why? Because the tryptophan molecule has a much larger molecular structure than other amino acids. Therefore, when tryptophan flows into the brain and other amino acids are smaller, they flock to the brain faster. There is a kind of competition in the middle. However, the situation is slightly different for people who adopt an active lifestyle. For example, during walking, jogging, or exercise, amino acids other than tryptophan attack the muscles. Our ancestors said that there is no mistake in simile. So let's make an analogy. Traffic is reduced and roads are emptied, while other amino acids are the size of cars, and tryptophans the size of a truck enter the brain in abundance through the brain barriers. In short, those who take tryptophan, which supports the happiness hormone, with foods, facilitate its transition to the brain with an active lifestyle. They are happy and peaceful.
Stay well. May you have a happy and peaceful year.
