The tryptophan in turkey gets a bad rap every Thanksgiving. Here’s the real reason you’re so tired. The tryptophan in turkey gets a bad rap every Thanksgiving. Here’s the real reason you’re so tired. Following is a transcript of the video.
Dr. Daniel Barone: So the myth is that turkey has a lot of a chemical known as tryptophan, which is actually the precursor to melatonin. So people think that when you, around Thanksgiving time, when you have a lot of turkey, that makes you tired because of all the tryptophan that you’re eating gets produced into melatonin and then it makes us fall asleep.
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