Is it true that "getting sleepy if you eat turkey"?

ByDianne Rosete

Christmas andThanksgiving(Thanksgiving)Often you can eat the roasted turkey, and in America it is said that "Thanksgiving makes you sleepy because you eat lots of turkeys." Is it true that "getting sleepy if you eat turkey"? So, with that theory and truth to the news siteWIREDIt is deployed on YouTube.

Food Myths: Does Turkey Make You Sleepy? - YouTube


"I like Thanksgiving, but eating turkey makes me sleepy ...." The movie started from the words of someone who thinks that his tired drowsiness is due to turkey.


The reason why women think that it is the cause of drowsiness is that the turkey contains "TryptophanOne type of amino acid.


Then, is it true that "turkey makes a lot of tryptophan so much tired and made people sleepy"?


Indeed, turkey meat contains tryptophan. However, since tryptophan is often contained in high protein foods, there are many foods rich in tryptophan besides turkey. For example,Amino acid composition table published by MEXTAccording to the turkey's 100 g edible portion, the amount of tryptophan is 280 mg, but 320 mg for cheddar cheese and 590 mg for parmesan cheese.


Talk changes a bit, but why tryptophan causes drowsiness Tryptophan works as a neurotransmitter in the brainSerotoninIn order to become a material to make. Serotonin is also called "Happiness Hormone" and the amount of secretion in the brain increases with sex and drug ingestion.


Tryptophan goes through serotonin and finallyMelatoninIt changes to a compound called. As melatonin increases in the brain, pulse, body temperature, blood pressure and so on are reduced and the body recognizes that the body is ready to sleep, so melatonin may be used to treat sleep disorders. In other words, the reason for "getting sleepy when eating turkey" is that by ingesting more tryptophan, the final amount of melatonin will increase.


However, as I said earlier, this is not limited to turkeys. There are many other high-protein foods to eat in Thanksgiving.


In addition, carbohydrates often contained in bread, pasta, rice etc. accelerate the process of converting tryptophan to melatonin. So if you eat a large amount of pasta etc. in addition to high protein foods, you will feel sleepier faster than usual.


In addition, if the amount to eat is large, movement slows as the body attempts to digest food.


It goes without saying that drinking alcohol will make you feel more drowsy. In other words, "To get sleepy if you eat turkey at Christmas or Thanksgiving" is the result of a false reasoning that "This drowsiness must be caused by things you do not normally eat!", That means "I ate too much".