Turkey allegedly causes drowsiness because it is packed with a nutrient called tryptophan. The bird *is* a great source of this essential acid, but it is not unique: many meats and other protein products pack comparable amounts.
From Scientific American:
"Tryptophan is used by the human body to make serotonin, a neurotransmitter...It has a somnolent effect on fruit flies, whose sleep is most likely equivalent to our slow-wave (non-REM) sleep. But eating turkey does not translate to amplified serotonin production in the brain, says neuropharmacologist Richard Wurtman of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences in Cambridge, Mass.
Thus, it is no wonder that turkey, which provides the raw
material for the synthesis of sleep-related serotonin, is purported
to have soporific power. But eating turkey does not translate to
amplified serotonin production in the brain, says
neuropharmacologist Richard Wurtman of the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology's Department of Brain and
Cognitive Sciences in Cambridge, Mass.
Turkey and other protein-rich foods contain many amino acids, and tryptophan is the scarcest among them, Wurtman says."
After a turkey dinner, several amino acids circulate through the
bloodstream. To get into the brain they must be shuttled across the
blood-brain barrier by specialized transport
proteins. Like passengers trying to board a crowded bus,
amino acids compete for rides on these transporters.
Not only does tryptophan have paltry representation among the passengers; it also competes with five other amino acids for the same transporter. Aced out by other amino acids, tryptophan thereby has a tough time hitching a ride to the brain.
"Paradoxically, what probably makes people sleepy after
Thanksgiving dinner is…dessert," he adds.
"Eating carbohydrates increases brain serotonin in spite
of the fact that there is no tryptophan in carbohydrates."
Gobbling a slice of sweet pumpkin pie, for instance, causes
beta cells in the pancreas to secrete insulin, a hormone that
allows the uptake of glucose and most amino acids into the
tissues.
Insulin has little effect on tryptophan, a large percentage of which travels the bloodstream bound to the protein albumin and therefore is unavailable to the tissues, the notable exception being the brain.
By sopping up other amino acids from the blood, however, [pumpkin pie-induced] insulin reduces the tryptophan's competition; the transport system is no longer tied up and more tryptophan can cross the blood-brain barrier.
As Wurtman and others have shown, when more tryptophan arrives in the brain, serotonin synthesis steps up and serotonin-mediated transmission is amplified among neurons."
.................................................
So...without the pumkin (or pecan) pie carbs, tryptophan would barely make it to the brain.
Even with the crutch...tryptophan is only one of many causes behind the Thanksgiving coma. Others include:
Stuffing too much food down the ol' pie-hole physically stretches the organ and literally makes the body sleepier in response.
"Protein-fat loading of the stomach induces sleepiness," says biologist H. Craig Heller at Stanford University in Palo Alto, CA.
Like the brain. That will make one sleepy.
Also known as 'rest and digest.' "Rest and digest -that is conducive to sleep," Heller says. Working in opposition to the sympathetic "fight or flight" stress response, the parasympathetic nervous system restores and conserves energy by reducing heart rate and blood pressure while increasing salivation and gastric action for digestion.
n't forget what alcohol does to alertness.
All in all, a Thanksgiving meal is a physiological perfect storm precursor to a great nap...
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