Do you have difficulty keeping your eyes open after eating that big turkey dinner?
Do you know what causes this?
L-Tryptophan is typically what gets blamed for post-turkey sleepiness. It is a type of amino acid well known for its tendency to cause drowsiness.
But here’s why L-Tryptophan cannot take all the blame…
Other foods like pork, chicken, beef and cheese actually contain similar, if not higheramounts tryptophan.
There are other factors at play that cause severe fatigue after dinner…and it isn’t just that we don’t want to do the dishes.
It probably has more to do with the foods accompanying our turkey and how much we are eating.
Carbohydrates: High carb meals actually increase the amount of tryptophan in the brain. It also triggers the release of insulin which causes other amino acids (that usually compete with tryptophan) to leave the bloodstream. This leaves us feeling physically drained.
Alcohol: To many people, Thanksgiving just wouldn’t be the same without a couple glasses of wine. Alcoholic beverages are well-known depressants…a few beverages will certainly slow you down.
Overeating: It takes a lot of energy to digest a big meal, especially if that meal has a high fat content. The gravy, creamy mashed potatoes, stuffing & rich desserts…When we fill ourselves with a heavy meal like this, our body redirects blood to areas involved in digestion. This leaves less blood for our nervous system and brain to work with.
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