Did you ever hear that there is something in turkey that makes you tired? Or maybe you felt for yourself that tired or drowsy feeling after the big Thanksgiving feast. Well it’s true that turkey does contain an amino acid called L-Tryptophan (el-trip-toh-fan) which is known to be a  natural sedative, as stated in an article called, “Effects of L-tryptophan on sleepiness and on sleep” by Ernest Hartmann in the Journal of Psychiatric Research. This amino acid travels through the blood stream up to the brain, then the brain converts the L-Tryptophan into a chemical called Serotonin (sare-uh-toh-nin) which calms us down and helps us sleep. However, L-Tryptophan would have to be taken by itself with no other protein or amino acid in order to make you drowsy, and since there is plenty of protein in turkey, the turkey is not the culprit! In fact, in an article from Physiology and Behaviortitled “Meal composition and its effect on postprandial sleepiness” nutrition experts, William C Orr, Gregory Shadid, Michael J Harnish, and Sigrid Elsenbruch believe the reason you are really tired after that Thanksgiving feast is because of all the consumption of carbohydrates found in bread, potatoes, yams, and pumpkin pie. So next time you hear someone say that turkey makes you tired, know that its all just a myth.

You can find these articles and much more using just one of our many  library databases. These articles were found using ScienceDirect, which provides full-text access to peer-reviewed journals on health and life sciences topics. This database and many others can be found on the Pearson Library Information Sources page.

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