Can Certain Foods Produce High Epinephrine Levels?

You may know it better as adrenaline, but epinephrine is a hormone produced in your brain in response to strong emotions such as fear or anger. A release of the hormone causes an increase in your heart rate, blood pressure, muscle strength and blood sugar and serves as a means to get you ready for strenuous activity, or flight or fight. While stress response usually triggers epinephrine, certain foods may affect levels.

Coffee, tea, citrus fruits, bananas, chocolate, cocoa and vanilla can raise epinephrine levels. MedlinePlus says you should avoid these foods for several days before a catecholamine blood or urine test, which measures epinephrine levels as well as dopamine and norepinephrine, and helps diagnose certain kinds of tumors called neuroblastoma or pheochromocytoma.