what is the stuff in turkey that makes u tired?

Question

and why is it only in turkey....

Answer 1

Tryptophan, but the only reason you can get tired is when you gorge on a big meal like on Thanksgiving. Turkey by itself can not mak you drowsy unless you gorged on that! Hope this helps.

Answer 2

What you're probably thinking about is the amino acid tryptophan. Tryptophan, however, does not cause this sleepiness. Many other meats contain the same amount of this chemical. It has also been reported that in order to get a sufficient amount of tryptophan to make you tired, you would have to consume several whole turkeys. What makes you tired is actually just all of the eating that usually accompanies the turkey.

Answer 3

It's called tryptophan, but that's actually a myth. Tryptophan is present in other foods. The substance tryptophan, by itself, does make you tired, but only on an empty stomach, which is certainly not the case if you're eating turkey. The real reason you get tired after Thanksgiving dinner is probably that you ate a lot of food. A full stomach will make you feel tired, especially if you've had a few alcoholic beverages too.

Answer 4

One widely-held belief is that heavy consumption of turkey meat (as for example in a Thanksgiving feast) results in drowsiness, which has been attributed to high levels of tryptophan contained in turkey While turkey does contain high levels of tryptophan, the amount is comparable to that contained in most other meats Furthermore, postprandial Thanksgiving sedation may have more to do with what is consumed along with the turkey, in particular carbohydrates, rather than the turkey itself.

It has been demonstrated in both animal models and in humans[ that ingestion of a meal rich in carbohydrates triggers release of insulin. Insulin in turn stimulates the uptake of large neutral branched-chain amino acids (LNAA) but not tryptophan (trp) into muscle, increasing the ratio of trp to LNAA in the blood stream. The resulting increased ratio of tryptophan to large neutral amino acids in the blood reduces competition with other amino acids for the large neutral amino acid transporter protein for uptake of tryptophan across the blood-brain barrier into the central nervous system (CNS).[ Once inside the CNS, tryptophan is converted into serotonin in the raphe nuclei by the normal enzymatic pathway The resultant serotonin is further metabolised into melatonin by the pineal gland.[9] Hence, these data suggest that "feast-induced drowsiness," and in particular, the common American post-Thanksgiving dinner drowsiness, may be the result of a heavy meal rich in carbohydrates which, via an indirect mechanism, increases the production of sleep-promoting serotonin and melatonin in the brain

Answer 5

Tryptophan

Answer 6

Tryptophan, it's an amino acid.

It is probably in other kinds of poultry, but turkey is known for being very high in tryptophan.

Answer 7

Male or female turkey? Did it keep you up all night?

Answer 8

The proteins in the meat

Answer 9

tryptophan