Why is it that when you eat certain foods they make you sleepy?!
Question: When you eat, blood flow is diverted to the stomach and intestines -- so that your intestines will have the blood supply they need to digest the food and absorb the nutrients. This may decrease the blood supply to the brain to a slight degree, but to a greater degree, as the nutrients from the recently-eaten meal enter the blood stream, they induce a sense of relaxation, comfort and drowsiness.
Turkey is thought to be more likely to induce drowsiness because it is rich in tryptophan, which can cause drowsiness and has even been used in the past as a sleep aid. Other foods which are more likely to cause drowsiness may do so for the same or similar reasons.
Answers: When you eat, blood flow is diverted to the stomach and intestines -- so that your intestines will have the blood supply they need to digest the food and absorb the nutrients. This may decrease the blood supply to the brain to a slight degree, but to a greater degree, as the nutrients from the recently-eaten meal enter the blood stream, they induce a sense of relaxation, comfort and drowsiness.
Turkey is thought to be more likely to induce drowsiness because it is rich in tryptophan, which can cause drowsiness and has even been used in the past as a sleep aid. Other foods which are more likely to cause drowsiness may do so for the same or similar reasons.
Turkey has some kind of compound that triggers sleepiness in the brain. That's why half the house is sleeping on sofas after Thanksgiving dinner.
Foods that are rich or very gratifying (comfort foods) tend to make me tired. I guess they just do!
That happens to my hubby & it's because of his diabetes. Maybe you should get checked out.
When a food stuff is hard to digest your body has to use more energy to aid the digestion of that food so in turn your heart has to work harder, this also happens when your overeat, for example at christmas time, the reason why almost everyone ends sleeping through the Queens speach!!!
Some foods have a high concentration of the amino acid tryptophan which increases brain levels of seratonin and melatonin which help induce sleep. They include most protein rich foods. Especially poultry, like turkey.