According to a recent episode of “The Food Detectives” hosted by Ted Allen, eating turkey at Thanksgiving will not make you sleepy. Counterintuitive, I know.“But it’s filled with tryptophan which is like the Tylenol PM of amino acids, right?”
Kind of, but the reason for your postprandial Thanksgiving sedation, or what is more commonly known as a "food coma," is due to eating too much in general. So give the bird a break. You could eat a tofurkey and end up snoring loudly on a couch in front of your relatives just as easily. Add in all the carbohydrates and alcohol commonly associated with a Thanksgiving dinner, and you have a perfect storm brewing.
So tomorrow if you find yourself dozing off in the middle of one of Uncle Larry's "exciting" stories, keep in mind the cause is due to the gobbling... not the gobbler.
posted by jw
