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nutritional

Do You Suffer from Postprandial Somnolence?


By Patrick Miller

ases of postprandial somnolence in the United States can reach epidemic levels in late November. Perhaps you have seen the telltale symptoms in a loved one a vacant expression, heavy eyelids, extreme armchair drowsiness, and a tendency to unfasten their trousers. Commonly known as food coma, postprandial somnolence traditionally strikes hardest after Thanksgiving dinner. Its effects can be as minor as drifting off during a football game, or as devastating as neglecting to wash, help wash, or even offer to help wash the postmeal dishes. Dont feel guilty; it is not your fault. You have a medical condition. Although there is no vaccination or cure (other than a long nap on the couch), with a little knowledge and effort, it can be avoided. Many Americans have wrongly blamed this phenomenon on turkeys. The reasoning goes something like this: I get sleepy after Thanksgiving dinner, Thanksgiving dinner includes a generous amount of turkey, turkey meat contains tryptophan, tryptophan is converted into serotonin, serotonin is converted into melatonin, melatonin induces sleep; therefore,
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turkeys are the culprit of my food-induced lethargy. As logical as this explanation sounds, it is ultimately false because of one very important fact. Turkey is not exceptionally rich in tryptophan. It certainly contains a healthy amount of it, but not substantially more (and sometimes less) than beef, pork, chicken, tuna, soybeans, and many other proteinrich foods. Since this is the case, turkeys are innocent, and skimping on portions will not reduce the after-dinner fatigue. Even attempts at replacing turkey with ham or tofu are ineffective at keeping postprandial somnolence from rearing its slothful head. So what causes a food coma if not turkey? This is the truly confusing part because the ultimate answer is... tryptophan. It is true tryptophan is converted into serotonin and eventually melatonin by the human body, and it is the melatonin that induces the sleepiness. But, you may be thinking, how can tryptophan be causing postprandial somnolence if eating tryptophan doesnt cause postprandial somnolence? That is a complicated question, which can only be answered by understanding how the body processes this amino acid.

Tryptophan is an amino acid. Amino acids perform myriad jobs throughout the body, but this article will focus on a single task passing through the blood brain barrier. The blood brain barrier protects the brain from unwanted substances in the blood. Not just anything can get to the brain, but amino acids are in the long list of essential nutrients that can. They enter it as people enter a subway. They stand in line and pass through turnstiles (in this case, capillaries) one at a time. For the purposes of this analogy, only the essential amino acids will be used. The blood brain barrier and bio-chemical reactions in the brain are extraordinarily complex subjects that do not need to be understood to grasp how Thanksgiving dinner makes you sleepy. So, for this analogy only, please pretend there are only nine amino acids vying to cross the blood brain barrier. Generally, the different amino acids pass the barrier at the same rate as their blood levels meaning, if you have a lot of tryptophan in your blood, your brain is going to get a lot of tryptophan. Again, this makes turkey look like the bad guy. Turkey might be a good source of tryptophan, but it is significantly richer in the other eight essential amino acids. For example, a four-ounce portion of turkey contains 217 mg of tryptophan and over 1,500 mg of leucine, another essential amino acid. So, despite eating a food high in tryptophan, the level of tryptophan in the blood compared to other amino acids is not increased, and, in turn, the amount entering the brain remains too little to trigger an episode of postprandial somnolence. Returning to the subway turnstile analogy, imagine the amino acids as different groups of people. So long as the ratio of people in each group remains the same, they will enter, one at a time, at the same rate

no matter how many total people there are. The only thing that can disrupt this regulated entry is if the ratio of people suddenly changes. Now pretend three of those groups of people are firefighters, police officers, and emergency medical technicians. Someone yells, Fire! Those three groups will immediately run off to do their jobs, making much more room for the remaining groups who know nothing about dealing with the emergency. Their rate of entry might double or triple with the removal of the other groups. This is essentially what happens to increase the level of tryptophan entering the brain. In this scenario, the firefighters, police officers, and EMTs are leucine, isoleucine, and valine also known as the branched-chain amino acids. These guys do a lot of work with muscles, and one of their triggers (the one who yells, Fire!) to do this job is insulin. Insulin is released when a person eats carbohydrates, and the more carbs the more insulin. So, if someone eats a meal loaded with stuffing, mashed potatoes, and cranberry sauce, they will produce a lot of insulin. The insulin will alert the branched-chain amino acids to forget about getting into the brain and try to get into muscles instead. This greatly increases the proportion of tryptophan in the blood, thus increasing the rate it is taken through the blood brain barrier. The increased levels of tryptophan are converted into serotonin, then melatonin, and then... postprandial somnolence. In the end, it is (hopefully) clear to see that turkey is blameless, and carbohydrates are truly the guilty party in causing postprandial somnolence. This year, maybe consider enjoying the turkey and taking it easy on the carbohydrates if you want to remain sharp-minded and alert after Thanksgiving dinner. But then, on the other hand... are naps really all that bad?

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