I may be out of the loop here, but would somebody mind catching me up on the abandonment of the “fructose explanation”?
Fructose has been the be-all and end-all of my hypothesis for the last little while. I find that when I avoid fructose in its many forms, including “invert sugar syrup”, sugar feels like it has a more natural effect. It “does what it should”, i.e. provide me with a quick burst of dopamine, rather than leaving me suddenly hungry again when I just ate.
For those without the context for this, fructose suppresses leptin, a hormone that regulates appetite in our brains, causing a “bottomless” feeling. This makes sense: for a wild animal, fruit gluts are a great time to store calories for winter.
As far as I can see, knowledge of this is relatively widespread, so I have to assume people noted it and moved on.
Is there an argument against this I haven’t heard?
I just thought I’d return here a few months later to add an update for people who may be considering building their own lamp.
Having built my own lamp with 6000K LEDs that are not designed specifically for SAD treatment, I have found that it does tan my skin and create a feeling of sensitivity.
On doing some research, it seems that purpose-built SAD lamps filter out the UV part of the spectrum.
This seems like an important consideration for anyone who may be planning on building their own.
For my own filter, I am considering buying some UV blocking film! Hopefully this will solve the problem.