Dopamine eating: breakfast
The first step in optimising our dopamine and thereby boosting productivity, focus and energy is eating enough. What should we eat? Food which contains an abundance of the raw materials to manufacture enough dopamine.
I talk to my clients about making a nice, big dopamine cake. The raw ingredients for dopamine production are listed above the rainbow cake!
Tyrosine is an amino acid, therefore eating protein for breakfast is a no-brainer. Foods which are high in tyrosine include bananas, pistachios, pumpkin seeds, avocado, flaxseeds and chicken.
Vitamin B6 is found in pistachios, sunflower seeds, hazelnuts, chickpeas, salmon, cod, beef, leeks and garlic.
Iron is found in cacao, dark chocolate, lentils, kidney beans, chickpeas, spinach, tomatoes and beef.
Vitamin B12 is found in chicken liver, mackerel, crab, salmon and cod.
Folate (vitamin B9) is found in sunflower seeds, pistachios, spinach, asparagus, leeks, lentils, quinoa and rosemary.
Vitamin C is found in an extraordinary selection of fruits and vegetables including peppers, kiwis, broccoli, sweet potatoes, raspberries, pomegranate, blueberries and bananas.
Vitamin D is found in the sunshine and in mackerel, egg yolks, salmon, chicken and sardines.
These lists of food sources of nutrients are not exhaustive - they are included to illustrate the point that eating a wide variety of whole foods sets us up for successful dopamine manufacture.
I encourage you to eat in a purposeful way - make meals from a selection of whole foods which give you access to the raw materials you need for dopamine manufacture.
MY DOPAMINE MUFFINS
I created this muffin recipe to include as many dopamine ingredients as possible. I eat two for breakfast with some berries on the side.
Ingredients:
2 ripe bananas (weight with skin around 220g)
2 large eggs
150g almond flour
30g omega seed mix (pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, flaxseeds)
30g raw pistachios
1 tablespoon of raw cacao
1 teaspoon of baking powder
Method:
Whizz the bananas and eggs for a few seconds in a Nutribullet (or similar). Or mash the bananas and use a fork to whip the eggs.
Then pour the banana and egg mixture into a jug containing the dry ingredients. Stir and combine. Then spoon the mixture into 4 muffin cases in a muffin tin. Bake at 180 degrees for about 15 minutes until firm to touch.
If the muffins are not sweet enough for you, add 2 dates to the Nutribullet and whizz them with the bananas and eggs. You could even add a few dark chocolate chips for extra iron!
2 muffins provides 28g of protein.
