Besides being a time to reflect on all the people and moments you are thankful for in your life, Thanksgiving is also a holiday dedicated to indulging in food. From pumpkin pie to sweet potatoes drizzled with marshmallows, America knows how to eat during this fall holiday. If you find yourself dozing off in between rounds of hitting the food table, it is likely you have heard that turkey is to blame. But, before we limit our turkey intake this year for fear of falling asleep before dessert, let’s figure out exactly what’s to blame for the lethargic feeling we get on Thanksgiving.
Turkey is stuffed with “L-tryptophan [which] is an essential amino acid,” WedMD, a website composed of medical information, states. Since it is an essential amino acid, “The body can’t make it, so diet must supply tryptophan,” WebMD explains. Necessary “for the body to produce serotonin, [tryptophan in turn] is used to make melatonin, a hormone that helps to control your sleep and wake cycles,” WebMD explains further. Linking turkey with tryptophan and melatonin is likely the reasoning behind the common belief that turkey causes a mid-Thanksgiving nap; however, Dawn Jackson Blatner, RD, LDN, an American Dietetic Association spokeswoman, points out that “turkey contains no more […] tryptophan than other kinds of poultry. In fact, turkey actually has slightly less tryptophan than chicken,” according to WebMD. So if eating an every-day chicken dinner doesn’t make you want to take a nap, it is unlikely that a Thanksgiving turkey would make us fall asleep on the couch.
According to an informational website, How Stuff Works, “nutritionists and other experts say that the tryptophan in turkey probably won’t trigger the body to produce more serotonin because tryptophan works best on an empty stomach,” which, on Thanksgiving, is unlikely to have! Additionally, for tryptophan to enter the blood stream to make it to the brain, “it has to compete with all these other amino acids. It waits in line to get through the blood-brain barrier and very little of it makes it across,” Elizabeth Somer, MA, RD, states on WebMD. This means that very little “tryptophan makes it to the brain to help produce serotonin,” How Stuff Works further explains. So, turkey isn’t to blame for the excess tiredness you feel on Thanksgiving; in fact, the whole meal is the culprit. How Stuff Works explains “the meal is quite often heavy and high in carbohydrates […] and your body is working hard to digest that food.” Breaking down all the fat, carbohydrates, and alcohol that is consumed on Thanksgiving causes work for our bodies; “After all, the average Thanksgiving meal contains 3,000 calories and 229 grams of fat,” How Stuff Works further explains.
Verdict: Fiction. Turkey isn’t the only reason we want to nap between dinner and dessert on Thanksgiving; however, “a late snack of turkey […] nutritionists say, might be the right amount of tryptophan on an empty stomach to help produce some serotonin,” How Stuff Works concludes. It seems, by itself, turkey can aid in curing late-night restlessness, but only on an empty stomach. So, unless you are only eating turkey this Thanksgiving, then blame the whole meal and not the bird!
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I’ve always known this to be ENTIRELY FALSE! There are so many other foods out there with Tryptophan in them — EVEN MORE than turkey!