For decades, everyone's blamed the turkey for that inevitable post-Thanksgiving food coma. "It's all that tryptophan," they say, nodding knowingly as Uncle Bob starts snoring on the couch. But here's the thing: turkey doesn't actually have unusually high levels of tryptophan. In fact, chicken and ground beef have just as much, and you don't pass out after eating a burger.
So what's really happening? The culprit is actually the massive amount of carbohydrates you're consuming – mashed potatoes, stuffing, dinner rolls, cranberry sauce, sweet potato casserole, and pie. Lots and lots of pie.
When you eat a carb-heavy meal, your body releases insulin to process all that sugar. This insulin triggers your muscles to absorb most amino acids from your bloodstream – except tryptophan. With its competition cleared out, tryptophan can finally cross into your brain more easily.
Once in your brain, tryptophan converts into serotonin, and then into melatonin – the hormone that literally puts you to sleep. It's not the turkey doing this; it's the mountain of carbs you just demolished.
There's also the sheer volume of food involved. Your body diverts blood flow to your digestive system to handle the feast, leaving less oxygen flowing to your brain. This makes you feel sluggish and tired.
Add alcohol into the mix – because who's having Thanksgiving dinner without wine? – and you've got a perfect storm for sleepiness. Alcohol is a depressant that slows down your nervous system and makes you drowsy all on its own.
The real irony? The protein in turkey might actually help you stay awake if you weren't drowning it in carbohydrates. Protein helps slow down the absorption of those sleep-inducing carbs.
So next time someone blames the turkey, you can tell them the truth: it's not the bird that's knocking everyone out – it's everything else on the plate. But the tryptophan myth has been the perfect cover story for America's collective carb overload for generations.