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Turkey Doesn’t Make You Tired: The Myth of the Post-Thanksgiving Crash
Don't blame the bird
At one point last week, thanksgiving dinner in my house was shaping up to be an entirely pie-based meal. Tourtiere pie (compliments of my French Canadian relatives), sweet potato pie, pumpkin pie…we were all ready to ditch turkey in lieu of anything that could be baked inside a butter crust.
But turkey made its way back to the menu. And no doubt as the last round of servings are being dished out, talk will turn to how we’re all in need of post-thanksgiving naps. Turkey will be to blame.
Here’s the thing: turkey gets a bad rep for inducing a food-coma, but it doesn’t actually make you tired. Here’s why:
The myth goes that the bird contains a high level of the amino acid tryptophan. Tryptophan does not get taken into the cells, but rather stays in the bloodstream and travels to the brain, where it boosts levels of serotonin.
Serotonin is involved in the regulation of sleep. But, turkey doesn’t actually have a high level of tryptophan — it’s on par with other foods like chicken, beef, soybeans, and sunflower and sesame seeds. And the levels that it does contain are not high enough to translate into a nap. You’d need a direct shot of tryptophan on an empty stomach (remember, this is thanksgiving we’re talking about).
Eating 5 helpings of turkey along with chestnut stuffing and mashed potatoes could make you drowsy, though. It’s not the tryptophan — it’s just the huge amount of energy being used by the body’s parasympathetic nervous system to digest the meal that makes you feel like you’re crashing.
Also, in the run up to the meal there’s so much preparation, coordinating, drinking, and social energy going out, it’s only natural that your body starts to shut down when it’s all over. So yes, you might need a post-turkey nap. But don’t blame the turkey, blame the crowded plate it’s sitting on. Happy thanksgiving!
Image: flickr/touchodi
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Don’t Let The Turkeys Get You Down! Because They Can’t! : Pursuit of Research commented on Nov 24 10 at 4:14 pm[...] and helps boost the neurotransmitter serotonin; I searched Google and found a fun blog ‘Turkey Doesn’t Make You Tired: The Myth of the Post-Thanksgiving Crash’ where the author [...]
Don’t Let The Turkeys Get You Down! Because They Can’t! commented on Nov 24 10 at 4:33 pm[...] http://blogs.babble.com/strollerderby/2010/11/24/the-myth-of-the-turkey-crash-tryptophan-and-thanksg... [...]
It’s a Thanksgiving Myth! commented on Nov 26 10 at 11:52 amAdd your take:
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