A Mythbusters Thanksgiving

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Even if there were dozens of casseroles, potato concoctions, and pies, Thanksgiving dinner just wouldn’t be complete without turkey. It’s a prime American tradition to meet family, watch football, eat massive amounts of turkey (among other things), and then fall into a sort of food coma. But why does the food coma occur in the first place?

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Turkeys and Tryptophan

The most common reasoning for the Thanksgiving food coma is that it is the result of massive tryptophan intake. Tryptophan is an amino acid (or building block for proteins) commonly found in turkey that is used in the production of serotonin, a hormone that triggers sleepiness and relaxation in people. Since people eat a lot of turkey on Thanksgiving, it’s assumed that they also process a lot of tryptophan and serotonin. The combination of these two compounds allegedly results in the infamous food coma.

Debunking Tryptophan

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Other studies have debunked the tryptophan-sleep hypothesis based on two different reasons.

1) Tryptophan is abundant not only in turkey, but all poultry.

Following this factoid, it would be logical to assume that a person should fall into a similar food coma after eating a lot of chicken. However, that chicken-induced sleep event never occurs.

2) Tryptophan only triggers serotonin production in an empty stomach

When tryptophan is present in a stomach full of other foods and amino acids, it essentially has to compete with those other molecules to induce some sort of effect on the body. As a result, the serotonin production from tryptophan in someone with a full stomach is much more reduced in comparison to that of someone with an empty stomach. Since Thanksgiving is one of the few days it’s socially acceptable (and encouraged) to eat a lot, there is no way someone would have an empty stomach so tryptophan could function properly.

A Smorgasbord of Possibilities

While there is proof that tryptophan may not be the sleep-inducing agent, some researchers believe that a mix of carbohydrates (from essentially everything on the Thanksgiving menu) and tryptophan can result in sleepiness. Other scientists think that the process of digesting all of the food from the day takes a greater toll on the body, resulting in the food coma. There are a lot of ideas about the situation, but no concrete explanation for why it happens just yet.