It is also important to note that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) banned the import and use of tryptophan as a dietary supplement in 1990, after about 5,000 people who were taking it developed eosinophilia-myalgia, a muscle disorder that resulted in the death of at least 37 people. Other scientific research has suggested that tryptophan would have a far more significant effect if turkey was eaten on an empty stomach, when tryptophan can be most readily absorbed into the blood stream, and that even then, the level of tryptophan found in a reasonable serving would be far too low to be sleep-inducing. Young also points out that turkey contains substantially less tryptophan than other protein sources and that the reason for the Thanksgiving “post-turkey torpor” is more likely the result of drinking alcohol and eating too many starchy and sugar-laden carbohydrates. One reason for this is that tryptophan has to compete with other, more abundant amino acids in the blood stream to gain entry to the brain. Studies carried out by Simon Young, PhD, a research psychologist at McGill University in Montreal, have shown that while tryptophan can make you sleepy, the amount of it that the body is able to process from eating a turkey dinner is actually less than is necessary to cause much of an effect.
In fact, so secure was the belief in the sleep-inducing benefits of tryptophan that it was manufactured as a dietary supplement in the 1980s to treat people suffering from This presumably accounts for why you may see a number of family members nodding off after eating a lot of turkey at the big Thanksgiving dinner. When tryptophan is absorbed into the blood stream, it is ultimately converted into serotonin, a neurotransmitter with a variety of effects, one of which is to calm certain areas of the brain leading to a sensation of drowsiness. What role does this chemical play and how much effect do tryptophan-rich foods really have on our ability to stay awake for dessert? Tryptophan, one of 20 so-calledĪmino acids, is found not only in poultry and dairy products, but also in beef, fish, peanuts, and whole grains. Many foods that induce drowsiness contain a naturally occurring substance called Most of us have heard about the relaxing benefits of drinking a warm glass of milk before bed, or have experienced the inevitable drowsiness that results from spending a couple of hours at a Thanksgiving table. True or False: Eating Turkey Makes You Drowsy
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