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It happens to the best of us. After a huge Thanksgiving meal, the debilitating drowsiness hits like a giant sledgehammer, making hibernation sound really appealing. Many just assume that it's your digestive tract working overtime (which takes a lot of energy)--this is partly true, but there is also an ingredient in turkey that many believe causes sleepiness. It's called trytophan.
Tryptophan (also known as L-tryptophan) is an amino acid necessary for the growth and production of niacin and serotonin. Serotonin is a neurotransmitter primarily found in the gastrointestinal tract, platelets, and the central nervous system. It's known to play a role in the regulation of appetite, mood, sleep, and many other important physiological processes. But, since the body needs other outside ingredients to actually produce serotonin, you've got to gobble up specific foods to get the necessary amount and keep the production going.
In a 200 calorie serving, roasted light meat turkey has about 433 mg of tryptophan. Surprisingly, however, turkey doesn't contain anymore trytophan than any other poultry. There is about 474 mg of trytophan in a rotisserie chicken breast, and about 384 mg in salmon, and you can also get it from eggs, milk, and seeds. That means that tryotophan by itself does not cause your debilitating food coma after a hearty Thanksgiving meal.
So what could be the cause? The drowsiness might simply be more noticeable because you're eating more meat (the average Thanksgiving meal is about 3,000 calories--much of that is from turkey!). Others speculate that the combination of more trytophan mixed with an abundance of carbs creates a complicated insulin response that causes drowsiness. It could be all that plus the wine--it's really still up for debate!
One thing is for sure--it's perfectly normal, and there's nothing to worry about. If it does have a lot to do with the trytophan, just remember that it is responsible for the feel-good neurotransmitter serotonin.
What do you think about all this? Are you surprised? Let us know your thoughts and reactions in the comments!
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