Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of iHeartRadio. Hey brain Stuff,
Speaker 1: Lauren vogel Bomb here with another classic episode of the podcast.
Speaker 1: In this one, we're talking turkey. Specifically, we're talking about
Speaker 1: its purported property of inducing sleepiness. It turns out that
Speaker 1: it's far from the first culprit in post holiday feast naps.
Speaker 1: Hey brain Stuff, I'm Lauren vogel Bomb, and our question
Speaker 1: of the day is, does turkey really make you sleepy?
Speaker 1: America's favorite holiday bird does have the makings of a
Speaker 1: natural sedative in it an amino acid called tryptofin. Tryptofin
Speaker 1: is an essential amino acid, meaning that you need it,
Speaker 1: but your body can't manufacture it. The body has to
Speaker 1: get tryp to fin and other essential amino acids from food.
Speaker 1: A triptfin helps the body produce the B vitamin nysin,
Speaker 1: which in turn helps you produce serotonin. Serotonin is a
Speaker 1: remarkable chemical that acts as a sort of calming agent
Speaker 1: in the brain and plays a key roll in sleep
Speaker 1: and Tryptofin is also a precursor to another common compound, melatonin.
Speaker 1: So you might think that if you eat a lot
Speaker 1: of turkey, your body would produce more serotonin and melatonin,
Speaker 1: and you would feel calm and maybe more likely to
Speaker 1: fall asleep. But nutritionists and other experts say that the
Speaker 1: tryptofin in Turkey probably won't trigger the body to produce
Speaker 1: more serotonin. Because tryptofin works best on an empty stomach.
Speaker 1: The triyptfin in Thanksgiving Turkey has to vie with all
Speaker 1: of the other amino acids the body takes in in
Speaker 1: order to pass the blood brain barrier and get to work.
Speaker 1: Only part of the tryptofin in a Turkey dinner will
Speaker 1: make it to the brain to help produce serotonin. The
Speaker 1: fact that Thanksgiving meals are often carbohydrate heavy actually does help.
Speaker 1: I think of all the bread stuffings, potatoes, corn, and
Speaker 1: candied tubers covered in marshmallows that we eat before we
Speaker 1: even get to the real desserts. The insulin our bodies
Speaker 1: releases to process all of that also serves as sort
Speaker 1: of ride share vehicles for a lot of amino acids,
Speaker 1: but not for tryptofin, which hitches a ride to the
Speaker 1: brain on a protein called albumin. So with most of
Speaker 1: the competition out of the way, it is in fact
Speaker 1: easier for triptofin to get into our brain and start
Speaker 1: the process that leads to the production of more serotonin. Melatonin, meanwhile,
Speaker 1: is produced outside of the brain, so you don't have
Speaker 1: to worry about that competition at the blood brain barrier,
Speaker 1: but you do have to worry that you have all
Speaker 1: the other compounds necessary for your body to create it. Overall,
Speaker 1: researchers think it's neither the melatonin nor the serotonin produced
Speaker 1: from tryptofin that leads to rampant late afternoon napping on Thanksgiving.
Speaker 1: Most likely it's the whole traditional meal together producing lethargy.
Speaker 1: The average Thanksgiving meal contains three thousand calories, more than
Speaker 1: most of us usually eat in a whole day, and
Speaker 1: your body works hard to digest all that food. After all,
Speaker 1: your nervous system is set up to prime your body
Speaker 1: for maximum nutrient absorption every single time you eat. A
Speaker 1: part of this is called our rest and digest response.
Speaker 1: When we eat, we excrete more saliva and gastric juices,
Speaker 1: and our heart rate and blood pressure lower. Also, our
Speaker 1: bodies are sending more blood to our guts in order
Speaker 1: to help out, meaning that less is available for the
Speaker 1: brain and the skeletal system. All of this can make
Speaker 1: you feel lethargic, limb, heavy and relaxed. Also, if you
Speaker 1: drink alcohol with your dinner, you'll likely feel the sedative
Speaker 1: effect of that as well. But there is a way
Speaker 1: to take advantage of the tryptofin in turkey. If you
Speaker 1: have trouble getting to sleep one night while there's still
Speaker 1: leftover turkey in the fridge, you could have a late
Speaker 1: turkey snack and that nutritionists say might be the right
Speaker 1: amount of tryptofin on an empty stomach to help produce
Speaker 1: some serotonin. Today's episode is based on the article does
Speaker 1: Turkey make You Sleepy? Written partially by me and partially
Speaker 1: by contributors to how stuffworks dot com whose names have
Speaker 1: been lost to the sands of time. If it was
Speaker 1: you right in a brain? Stuff is a production of
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