NEW ORLEANS — With Thanksgiving almost here, we thought it'd be appropriate to tackle a myth that seems to hit all of us during the holiday. It has to do with turkey and whether it makes you sleepy after the big meal.
Most people blame the amount of tryptophan in the turkey. We're going to verify if that's really the case.
Tryptophan is an amino acid that's found in turkey, but also other foods like chicken, cheese and eggs. It's crucial in creating a neurotransmitter that's associated with sleep. That has added to the myth that eating a lot of turkey will make you drowsy.
To put that myth to the test, we turned to Dr. Whitney Hardy, a family medicine doctor at Ochsner West Bank.
"I think we blame the turkey all the time. I'm guilty of it myself. I think we're being hard on that turkey," Dr. Hardy said.
Dr. Hardy says to think of all the food we eat almost every day that has tryptophan. She says those meals usually don’t cause us to crash after. Hardy says the long-time myth about turkey and sleep does and doesn't hold water.
"It is true and false at the same time. The turkey does have amino acids and tryptophan is one of them. However, when you eat a turkey sandwich on a regular day, you don't get sleepy, but when you eat turkey in combination with all the other delicious Thanksgiving foods, they kind of activate the tryptophan and that's what makes it knock you out," Dr. Hardy said.
So, the myth that turkey alone makes you drowsy is false. But if you want to enjoy that Thanksgiving nap, make sure you load up that plate with the sides.
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