Does Tryptophan in Your Thanksgiving Turkey Really Make You Sleepy?

It’s been a plot staple on Thanksgiving-themed sitcom episodes through the years, notably the famous “Merv Griffin Show” episode of Seinfeld, but does the amount of tryptophan in turkey really lead to grogginess?

According to WebMD, the answer is no. Dawn Jackson Blatner, an American Dietetic Association spokeswoman and author of The Flexitarian Diet, said that while turkey is high in the chemical, it’s no more than most poultry. In fact, often chicken has more tryptophan than turkey.

“It boils down to Thanksgiving being a time when people overeat. When people overeat food, the digestion process takes a lot of energy. Don’t incriminate the turkey that you ate, incriminate the three plates of food that you piled high.”

That’s just one of several long-running myths about the holiday that simply aren’t true. Watch the video below for more.

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