Is taking GABA really effective in fighting stress and helping you sleep? Nutritionist: Whole grains, green tea and 5 other types of food for quick supplementation

As we move towards the stage of coexistence with the new coronavirus, people are under tremendous pressure for fear of contracting the disease. They are worried when they go out and they are also anxious at home. The high number of confirmed cases every day has also become one of the reasons for stress and poor sleep. One can’t help but wonder, should we supplement some nutrients to help regulate the tense condition? I heard that GABA is very effective in relieving stress and helping with sleep. Is that true?

What is GABA?

GABA, a very popular anti-stress nutrient in recent years, not only exists in natural foods, but has also become an emerging additive in food or nutritional supplements. What exactly is GABA? Nutritionist Lin Ya-en, chairman of the Taiwan Health Nutrition Education Promotion Association, said that GABA is actually an amino acid that inhibits nerve conduction. Its main function is to switch on and off conduction between nerve cells by binding to GABA receptors on nerve cells during the communication process between the brain and spinal cord. Therefore, it can regulate emotions such as anxiety, tension, stress, and fear, and further achieve the effect of self-relaxation. Therefore, it is also related to creating a brain environment that is easy to fall asleep.

GABA is somewhat similar to the effect of alcohol on nerve cells, slowing down or blocking the transmission of certain nerve messages in the brain, thereby helping us reduce anxiety, feel relieved and relaxed. If the amount of GABA in the body is insufficient or its activity is poor, the messages transmitted by certain nerve cells may be exaggerated without limit, which can lead to severe anxiety or inability to cope with stress, or sleep disorders such as tossing and turning at night.

How does the brain regulate emotions? How does GABA help fight stress?

There are many different neurotransmitters in the brain with different functions. Some are of the stimulating type, while others are of the inhibitory type. They interact with each other to antagonize and regulate our emotions and feelings. Excitatory neurotransmitters, such as norepinephrine, increase the amount of information transmitted by the brain, making the nervous system more active and enabling us to react and act quickly.

In contrast, GABA is an inhibitory neurotransmitter, and its effect is similar to that of serotonin, another neurotransmitter, in that it relaxes and stabilizes emotions. After GABA binds to the GABA receptors of certain nerve cells in the brain, it stops the nerve cells from sending signals, thereby calming emotions and stabilizing thoughts. In the spinal nervous system, GABA has a similar smoothing effect, allowing different sensory perceptions to be more integrated, thereby helping to produce smoother and more stable movements.

Nutritionist Lin Yaen said that scientists have been studying GABA for many years and found that patients with certain diseases have poor GABA mechanism functioning. These diseases include: severe depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, autism, etc. Recently, it has even been found that patients with Alzheimer's disease and diabetes have insufficient or poorly functioning GABA in their bodies.

How does poor GABA function affect health?

Nutritionist Lin Yaen said that scientists have been studying GABA for many years and found that patients with certain diseases have poor GABA mechanism functioning. These diseases include: severe depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, autism, etc. Recently, it has even been found that patients with Alzheimer's disease and diabetes have insufficient or poorly functioning GABA in their bodies. In practical applications, medical scientists use the principle of GABA binding to nerve receptors to create drugs with similar effects to GABA to help control diseases directly related to nerve conduction, such as anxiety or depression. In recent years, there have been many experiments using high-dose GABA nutritional supplements to try to understand whether this type of nutritional supplement can really help people's health. However, these studies are still in the observational research stage or lack a large and complete research design, so it cannot be proved that GABA supplementation can alleviate or prevent the occurrence of the above diseases.

Are GABA foods/supplements suitable for me?

There are already many health foods containing GABA on the market, claiming to have such anti-stress effects as soothing emotions and relaxation. Some are even combined with melatonin or sesamin to make compound medicines to try to solve insomnia problems. However, according to large-scale meta-analysis studies, there are currently only small-scale trial reports on this type of supplement, and most of them are conducted by the manufacturers themselves without a neutral research stance to avoid conflicts of interest, so their effectiveness cannot be proven. At the same time, GABA, like many other nutritional supplements, is generally not recommended for pregnant or breastfeeding women. Therefore, it is recommended that when consumers consider purchasing GABA products, they should start with their daily diet. Taking GABA and other nutrients that support the body's stress resistance and sleep from natural foods is the fundamental way to maintain health.

How can we eat to get the GABA that our body needs?

Nutritionist Lin Yaen said that there are not many foods rich in GABA in nature, and they mainly come from five types of food:

1. Whole grains (such as brown rice and sweet potatoes).

2. Vegetables (such as spinach, kale, broccoli, long beans, green beans, etc.).

3. Fermented foods (e.g. kimchi, miso, tempeh, etc.).

4. Dark chocolate.

5. Green tea.

In recent years, Taiwan's agricultural product technology has been improved, and there are many foods with naturally activated functions, such as GABA oolong tea and GABA black fiber rice, which may also be a good choice for convenience and health.

The human body has a way of self-regulation. When life stress is too great, it will increase the synthesis of GABA on its own. What we can do is to provide the body with the necessary nutrients for this synthesis process:

Glutamate: The raw material for synthesizing GABA is glutamate, which can be obtained from beans, fish, eggs and meat.

Vitamin B6: Vitamin B6 is required in the synthesis of GABA. Vitamin B6 is also closely related to stabilizing nerves and can be widely obtained from various foods, including chicken, brown rice, spinach, garlic, bananas, etc.

Dietary fiber: The medical community has discovered that if the growth of good bacteria in the intestines is adequate, it will also help produce the GABA needed by the human body. Therefore, we need prebiotic foods that help maintain intestinal health, such as whole grains, vegetables and fruits rich in dietary fiber.

Antioxidant nutrients: Foods rich in phytochemicals, such as anthocyanins, beta-carotene, polyphenols, indoles, etc. contained in various vegetables and fruits, also play an important role in the synthesis of GABA in the body.

In short, whether the body can synthesize enough GABA is directly related to whether it consumes a diversified and balanced diet every day. If you are unable to take good care of your three meals a day due to your busy life and are unable to fully absorb the above nutrients, nutritionist Lin Yaen provides everyone with a private secret health care tip, which is to replace the daily meals with brown rice, especially brown rice such as black rice. Not only is it rich in GABA (each 100 grams of functional activated black rice contains 16.5 mg of GABA), it can also meet the needs of glutamate, vitamin B6, dietary fiber and anthocyanins at one time, achieving twice the result with half the effort!