Why Do I Get Tired on Thanksgiving? It's Not Just Tryptophan

Most people, after eating all the turkey and mashed potatoes, and everything else your Thanksgiving table was adorned with, will feel incredibly tired. When you ask why this happens, the common answer you will receive is that turkey contains the chemical tryptophan (an amino acid, essential in the diet of vertebrate animals).

Now it is true that tryptophan does have a tiring effect and tends to make one drowsy. Yet why don't you normally feel too tired after eating turkey the rest of the year? While tryptophan is a contributor to why you feel so tired, there is a much larger reason, one which could help your diet (especially for you high protein eaters).

When the body ingests protein, it uses it as energy, primarily for the muscles. With all I have searched, I have yet to find a diet that said protein was bad or should be restricted (unlike fat and carbs, which have both been found under bad stigmas for differing reasons).

However, protein, to an extent, does have to be restricted during meals. To help with what I am about to explain, I am going to allude to the famous "I Love Lucy" episode where she worked in the pie factory.

When you ingest a small or moderate amount of protein, the body quickly and effectively breaks down the amino acids and uses it for energy and recovery. So when the conveyor line began pumping out a few pies at once, we found that Lucy was easily able to fill them.

Yet, when the body ingests a high amount of protein, that is when problems arise. At this point, the conveyor is moving too quick to get any work done, and there are far too many pies to work effectively. Thereby, the conveyor has to be slowed down, but the excessive amount of pies are still there.

When you eat above 50 grams of protein in one sitting (according to Rob Faigin, creator of the NHE diet), your body has to slow down the digestion process and slowly break down the excessive amino acids. Once again, everyone knows that protein is great for the body, but few know that is does need to have this little restriction.

Once eating over this limit, your body undertakes an exhausting, energy inefficient, sleep inducing form of digestion to break down all the proteins to make them useful. That is the real reason you are tired on Thanksgiving. Not solely tryptophan, but the amount of protein your body has taken in.

Sources:

Limitations of protein, and the truth about Thanksgiving fatigue supplied by Rob Faigin's "Natural Hormonal Enhancement" book