Posted by Elizabeth on May 29, 2001, at 20:20:04
In reply to MAOI diets - and 'free' verses bound tyramine, posted by paulk on May 27, 2001, at 22:35:11
> There is an FAQ about MAOI diet restrictions centring on restricting tyramine, an amino acid.
Can I ask where this is (URL)? I wrote a FAQ about MAOIs several years ago, when I was an undergraduate. Unfortunately, when I lost my computer account at my undergrad college, my web page went away. It would be neat if someone had preserved my FAQ, although it's out of date and would need some revisions!
(BTW, there are also a couple of foods -- obscure things like fava bean pods and banana peels -- that contain serotonin or dopamine, which should also be avoided when taking MAOIs.)
< snip >
> For example, according to the book “Food Values of portions commonly used” (by Pennington Harper & Row), 3.5oz of ground lean beef contains 747mg of tyramine while 1 oz of cheddar cheese contains 341mg of tyramine.
Huh. That's sort of weird. Books about nutrition tend not to list tyramine content, because tyramine isn't an amino acid (it's a metabolite of tyrosine, which is an amino acid). Is it possible that the amounts listed in the book were tyrosine contents, not tyramine?
There are enzymes called peptidases in the stomach that break down proteins into their constituent amino acids. So it's irrelevant whether or not there are "free" amino acids in a particular food.
Meat tends to be safe unless it is aged or has not been stored properly. Certain bacteria excrete tyrosine hydroxylases, which catalyse the biotransformation of tyrosine into tyramine.
-elizabeth
poster:Elizabeth
thread:64463
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20010522/msgs/64655.html