Every year, I Promise myself I won't go into a food coma: I will eat responsibly, fill my belly with salads, and go light on the turkey and gravy. Instead, I wake up three hours after Thanksgiving dinner, sprawled out like Robinson Crusoe on the living room floor under a pile of my nephews' toys. My shirt is covered in light brown stains, and greasy handprints are on my jeans.
what is this about Thank you This sends me and millions of other Americans into digestive oblivion? Are we all reveling in turkey, or is there another reason Thanksgiving is a holiday of laziness?
You've probably heard that turkey meat is dripping with a sleep-inducing chemical called tryptophan. And while it's true that things play a role in sending your brain to sleep, saying that it alone does so is like saying that Neil Armstrong jumped to the moon alone.
For one thing, turkey isn't particularly rich in tryptophan. Ounce for ounce, a roasted chicken, grilled steak, or rack of pork spareribs all contain comparable amounts. Freeze-dried tofu has about twice the amount of tryptophan as turkey, and I doubt you've heard your cousin from Southern California complaining about how sleepy she feels after eating fake meat.
Carbs are the real culprit behind Thanksgiving sleepiness. Cast your heavy eyes on the side dishes. Mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce and pie are rich in carbs and flood your bloodstream with glucose, a sugar. To control the amount of glucose entering your muscles, your body releases insulin, which orders a group of amino acids to help it do the job. Tryptophan is also an amino acid, but is not useful for glucose regulation. Instead, it is mostly used by the body to make mood-regulating hormones.
Normally, tryptophan has limited access to your brain, because it is blocked by other amino acids. However, when called upon to help regulate glucose, tryptophan becomes evident. In the brain, it is converted to serotonin and then to melatonin – which is known to cause drowsiness.
Türkiye is not special. Any meal with a modest amount of tryptophan followed by about 30 grams of carbs (a medium plate of spaghetti) will deplete the rest of your amino acids long enough to cause a foggy feeling in the brain. But the tryptophan/carb combo is only part of the reason for your lethargy. Even more culpable is the fact that you eat. so. Shame. excess.