Have you ever eaten a turkey dinner and afterwards someone says that the feeling of drowsiness is caused by the tryptophan in the meat? According to Texas A&M University Professor Dr. Nicolaas Deutz, “This story about tryptophan in turkey is just kind of a running joke, it has nothing to do with the tryptophan.” Sleepiness probably has more to do with eating a big meal, according to Deutz.
It’s not that the amino acid can’t have potent effects on the central nervous system — it simply turns out that turkey does not have unusual levels of tryptophan. Tryptophan is normally converted to the neurotransmitter serotonin. Serotonin controls sleepiness, and higher levels of serotonin seem to improve mood.
While the fable of turkey making you tired might be a joke, using tryptophan to try to improve memory problems in people with multiple sclerosis, however, is far from funny, according to Dr. Deutz. Funded by the Maastricht University Medical Center, he is studying tryptophan-enriched diets and their effect on both mood and cognition in people with the de-myelinating autoimmune disorder.
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