Eating Turkey Makes You Sleepy: True or False? - CHOW Tip

Mark Scarbrough, coauthor of Lobsters Scream When You Boil Them, sets the record straight on the widespread myth that eating turkey makes you sleepy. See more Thanksgiving Tips and Videos on our Thanksgiving playlist: http://bit.ly/sgVrBN

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TRANSCRIPT
Everybody thinks eating turkey makes you sleepy. They're wrong. It doesn't. They blame it on an amino acid called L-Tryptophan. It is a mild sedative but you can't get sleepy from turkey for several reasons. One, you have to eat L-Tryptophan on a completely empty stomach. Did you have any of the rolls? Did you have soup? Did you have a glass of wine? Counteracts L-Tryptophan. Secondly, you have to eat a lot of it. More than you could ingest from turkey. Eggs have four times the L-Tryptophan that turkey does and you don't get sleepy eating scrambled eggs. Why do you get sleepy at Thanksgiving? Let's face it, you're probably drinking something. You're eating a lot of carbs and a lot of calories and finally, because you're listening to that conversation in your family. How many times do you have to hear about your grandmother's date with the Kaiser? It would put anyone to sleep.