Hi, Red,
I've felt for sometime that I didn't adequately explain to you why I think coffee and chocolate are really very much part of depression, so I've done a little more reading in an effort to give you all that I know regarding those foods and how they affect the feeling tone.
1. Foods that are high in sulfur (thiols) are irritating to the body, and the effects of their ingestion may not be felt for as long as 4 to 7 days after they are ingested. We must eliminate them for at least one week after we've had our last chocolate bar or cups of coffee before we will begin to feel better.
2. The symptoms of ingestion of sulfur foods (high in thiols) are the following:
A. tired, icky, depressed feeling starting within a few hours of eating
those foods and lasting 4 to 7 days following ingestion of repeated use of them.
B. We must go on a 7-day exclusion test of these foods to know if we are beginning to feel better. Then, pour them on again, and we will be certain as to whether or not these foods are triggers for our depression.
C. If our health improves after the exclusion test, we will know that we have a sensitivity to the sulfur-component in the foods and
that we must avoid them. These foods contain free thiol groups that interact and CAUSE EMOTIONAL DEPRESSION.
Now, which foods are they?
Coffee, Chocolate, Cheese of all sorts, Bakery products containing whey, eggs, or enzymes, Cream, Dairy Products including milk from any animal, Onions, Garlic, Peas, Peanuts, etc. (And I mean the list goes on and on; for a full run-down on those look at the website Sulfur Foods.com.)
The trace mineral molybdenum is helpful in supporting the sulfur pathway which may help us tolerate a little more caffeine than we could without using an adjunct. We need to read more about that, hopefully.
By the way, I don't manage tea well, either, and generally avoid it.
I hope this has more helpful information for you, Red.
It's Genetic