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Hey everyone, it's Mikki here. You're listening to Mini Mikkipedia on a Monday. Today I wanna chat through your nutritional toolbox for seasonal effect disorder. It's a super common thing that people experience. Where the days get shorter and the weather turns, many of us can get that general low mood feeling, feel slightly anxious, don't get this quality of sleep that we're used to, and just overall really have quite a meh time when it comes to the winter months.

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What's happening in the first place? might be wondering. Well, it's a great question. As daylight hours drop, so does our exposure to natural light. And that has a big ripple effect on our brain chemistry. Less sunlight means our bodies produce more melatonin and less serotonin. And melatonin can, it's of course related to sleep. People call it the sleep hormone and it influences our sleep quality and sleep initiation.

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However, if you have more of it at the wrong time of the day, it's gonna push down the serotonin that is also available and serotonin is our feel-good hormone. This combination can leave us feeling flat, unmotivated and craving carbs. It also disrupts our circadian rhythm, affecting sleep and energy patterns. On top of that, lower sunlight means lower vitamin D, as you know, and this is also involved in mood and immune function. I just wanna revisit or come back to that low serotonin carb

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craving, and what the mechanism is behind that. So of course, serotonin is a neurotransmitter that helps regulate mood, appetite, and sleep. And when serotonin levels are low, the brain looks for ways to boost it. And carbohydrate intake can temporarily increase that serotonin production. So we eat carbohydrate and this increases in spikes at insulin. Insulin helps shuttle most amino acids into muscles.

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except for tryptophan. Tryptophan is the precursor amino acid to serotonin. So with fewer competing amino acids lurking around the bloodstream, more tryptophan crosses the blood-brain barrier. This therefore means more serotonin is made. So we feel calmer, feel a bit more soothed, and even get a little bit of a lift in our mood despite the fact that it's temporary. It can become a little bit of a feedback loop. Low mood can

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lead to these carb cravings, which gives you short term relief, and that can then lead to low mood again. So for people who do experience seasonal affect disorder or persistent low mood, cravings for sugar or refined carbs often aren't just about willpower, they're your brain looking for a chemical boost. So we have to think about other ways to support serotonin through protein intake, omega-3s, vitamin D, B vitamins,

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exercise and light exposure to help reduce the intensity of these cravings. And all of these things which I've just mentioned also help with seasonal effect disorder. So one of the first things I'll mention in this nutritional toolbox is creatine. I talk about creatine a lot, as a lot of people do. You know this is a brain nutrient in addition to helping with muscle recovery and power in the gym and when we train, it helps support brain energy metabolism and can reduce depressive symptoms.

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particularly in women and vegetarian studies have shown. So very quickly, you just want to add three to five grams of creatine monohydrate to your breakfast smoothie, to your morning drink, to your yogurt, or something after your workout. Can be before, it doesn't really matter, though Darren Kando, world expert in creatine metabolism, does put his creatine with protein after his workout, so take from that what you will. Do it.

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at any point in the day where you remember to do it. Habit stack if you like. The next nutrient is vitamin D. Many people are deficient in winter months, particularly in New Zealand where the UVB rays aren't strong enough for us to synthesize vitamin D on our skin. And it does play a major role in mood, energy and immune health. A suggested dose is 2000 to 4000 international units a day. This would ideally be based on a recent vitamin D test.

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For what it's worth, you can get mega dose vitamin D from your doctor and this equates to about 1600 IU a day. So still slightly lower than what I've suggested as a dose. And some people may need more than that. In New Zealand, we aren't able to sell vitamin D in doses higher than 1000 international units. So you may want to pop on a website like iHerb and I would recommend getting your vitamin D alongside a vitamin K2 as well, just to help.

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the regulation of vitamin D and calcium in the body. The third nutrient, which is one I have been talking about a lot, took mine today, omega-3s, especially the icosapentaenoic acid or EPA. Omega-3s are powerful anti-inflammatories and EPA has the strongest link to mood support. So you want to aim for about one to two grams of EPA per day, which is significant actually. To get this, you might need to

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a supplement with about three grams of fish oil. Of course, you can get EPA from fatty fish like salmon and sardines or an algae-based supplement if you are plant-based. Just a reminder that walnuts, flax and chia seeds have a low efficiency rate for being converted into that longer-chained EPA. So I would always look to a supplement to help support your omega-3 levels. Magnesium is just a magnificent mineral. It supports our nervous system, it helps with sleep, and it does calm the body.

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These things can all help support restful sleep and serotonin levels and overall mood. Best forms for you to try are the glycinate or threonate, so MAG-Glycinate or MAG-Threonate. Do avoid oxide as it is poorly absorbed. You can get some magnesium from food, but I think it's pretty questionable how much you're actually going to get. Pumpkin seeds, spinach, almonds, and black beans are all sources of magnesium, but to be honest, I would look at a supplement for this as good insurance.

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around 300 to 400 milligrams a day. Now together B vitamins and protein or B vitamins help convert tryptophan which you find in protein into serotonin which is our feel good brain chemical. I mentioned what tryptophan is an essential amino acid as a precursor to serotonin but it doesn't convert to serotonin directly. It is a multi-step process that requires several cofactors such as vitamin B6,

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This is essential for converting 5-HTP, which is tryptophan, to serotonin, folate, B9, and vitamin B12. These are involved in the methylation cycle, which maintains the availability of cofactors needed for serotonin and dopamine synthesis also. Obviously, we need the protein, we need the tryptophan, but you also need those B vitamins to support that conversion. And ideally, you'd get B vitamins that are activated

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such as folate as opposed to folic acid and as a hydroxycobalamin or transcobalamin or a methocobalamin as opposed to a synacobalamin. And these are all sort of names for B12. One of the sort of tells if you like for a good B vitamin is the type of B9 folate and the type of B12 it has. So you want to avoid ideally the folic acid and the synacobalamin. Of course,

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You do also want to include good protein sources at each meal, such as eggs, poultry, and dairy, and tofu if you're a vegetarian, as the best source of vegetarian protein or vegan protein. Zinc is essential. Low zinc is linked to mood disorders and is implicated in seasonal affect disorder, with lower levels being found in autumn and winter than in spring and summer. This can be due to increased immune demand,

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because zinc is involved with our immune system and we're prone to more infections during winter. Might also be lower intake of zinc rich foods because we have seen this in population based data. There is lower zinc across winter and autumn being taken in and also the effects of inflammation and stress on zinc metabolism. And all of these things can crop up with the seasonal effect disorder itself.

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So in fact, our zinc demands might even be higher during winter if you do experience seasonal effect disorder. You can get zinc from food, of course, such as oysters. I'm not sure how many people would have oysters. Beef and also some plant-based sources like cashews and chickpeas, albeit plant-based sources of these types of minerals just make it harder for our body to absorb and digest those minerals. And in fact, you may be better off with a supplement because demands are high. Zinc colonate is an option.

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have it with a meal such as dinner and having 10 to 25 milligrams a day. I also of course recommend a regular protein intake that helps regulate blood sugar, support amino acid requirements such as the tryptophan and of course aiming for 20 to 40 grams of protein at each snack and meal respectively to support these physiological processes I've just mentioned. Not to mention of course our energy. Protein also, as I said,

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provides those raw materials before neurotransmitters like serotonin and like dopamine. You do also want to be mindful of your carb timing. So as I said, carbohydrate intake helps tryptophan from protein cross into the brain, including some foods like potato or kumara at dinner might help with sleep and mood. Antioxidant-rich colorful food is the ninth important thing to consider as part of your nutritional toolkit. Berries, dark chocolate,

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Green tea and turmeric, these help reduce inflammation and oxidative stress that can impact on our mood. So incorporating say 20 grams of dark chocolate, turmeric as a spice or as a tea, that can even in the absence of something like black pepper that helps at absorption, it may have some beneficial effects on the gut microbiome, which is super important. And of course green tea also has L-thionine, which is a nice sort of calming.

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compound or plant chemical that helps the brain. I mentioned the gut. Your gut makes up 90 % of your serotonin level. While that serotonin doesn't travel directly to the brain and cross that blood brain barrier, our gut microbes influence how much tryptophan is available to make serotonin in the brain. And gut inflammation can shift how much of that serotonin is produced and affect our mood boosting pathways.

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making good gut health just a key player in mental wellbeing. And it's quite clear now of that strong gut brain access relationship. So support your gut with fermented foods like sauerkraut and kefir, fiber, if you tolerate it, possibly a probiotic as supplement as well that may impact on mood overall. And there are in fact several clinical trials that support utilizing a probiotic. Of course, blood sugar balance is key with

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big sugar spikes, we can get big mood dips. So anchor every meal with protein, fat and fiber to help stay steady and focus. Winter can be hard, but small consistent changes to how you eat can make a big difference in how you feel. And you know what? Thinking about all of this stuff can feel like work and I really appreciate that, but that is actually the nature of looking after yourself and that work is important and the time that you invest in your health.

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is not time that you will regret later. It is so worth it. So if you are someone that experiences seasonal effect disorder, hopefully some of these things I've mentioned, you can look at implementing or look at researching further to see where you can optimize. All right, team, hopefully you're not impacted negatively by seasonal effect disorder. Anyway, I hope you have a fantastic day. Let me know if any of this resonated.

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Reach out to me, I'm over on threads, X and Instagram @mikkiwilliden, Facebook @mikkiwillidenNutrition, or head to my website, mikkiwilliden.com. All right guys, you have a great week. See you later.