Vitamin B6 & Phenylalanine are the key to your pleasure, literally!

A lot of people are deficient in Vitamin B6, and they're miserable.

A lot of people also don't get enough Phenylalanine, and they're probably even more miserable.

Allow me to explain.

Have you heard of something called "dopamine"?

It's commonly referred to as the "pleasure neurotransmitter". It's a chemical compound produced in your brain, and which allows brain cells to communicate among each other to create the "pleasure" sensation.

Do you feel good when you hug someone you love? It's Dopamine.

Do you feel good when making love to someone? It's Dopamine.

Do you feel good when watching a good movie? It's Dopamine.

Do you feel good when reading a good book? It's Dopamine.

It's impossible to experience pleasure if your body is not capable of producing Dopamine.

And just like any other compound in your body: Dopamine is produced from a certain raw material with the assistance of other chemicals called co-enzymes.

The raw material used to make Dopamine is an Essential Amin Acid called Phenylalanine.

Phenylalanine is called "essential" because our bodies cannot produce it: we have to get it from food.

Your body takes this Phenylalanine and converts it to Dopamine (through many steps) with the help of a co-enzyme: Vitamin B6.

So if you're deficient in either Phenylalanine or B6, you will have difficulties producing enough Dopamine, and as a result, you will experience less pleasure.

This is why Phenylalanine supplements are marketed as anti-depressants sometimes (I wouldn't recommend using supplements when food is available).

So how can you make sure you get enough Phenylalanine and Vitamin B6?

Here are the foods richest in these compounds:

Phenylalanine:

- Eggs

- Organ meats (e.g. liver)

- Poultry

- Milk

Vitamin B6:

- Seafood (especially oysters and mussels)

- Organ meats (e.g. liver)

- Poultry

Do you notice the similarities in the food groups? It's as if nature has "packaged" the 2 Dopamine nutrients in the same foods. Nature is funny that way :-)

By the way: Vitamin B6 from vegetable sources has 80-90% less bioavailability (usability by the human body) due to certain binding chemicals, so they're not a good source.