It’s the tryptophan. It sure is.
That is why you are sleepy after your Turkey dinner.
There’s a lot of tryptophan in turkey. And tryptophan makes you drowsy, right?
Tryptophan → 5-HTP → Serotonin → Melatonin = Zonked Out
Yes, that is the explanation that after your Thanksgiving meal, you are ready for sleepy-time.
Or is it?
In the United States, many readers (including some from around the world) are familiar with Thanksgiving. I know, I know, there is an insidious side to Thanksgiving's history, which we could discuss for hours, weeks, or years...
Currently, I like to think of Thanksgiving as:
- Gratitude
- Family and friend gatherings
- A moment to pause
- Food and tradition
- Togetherness before the holiday rush
This is what I like to call ‘The Thanksgiving Effect’.
Sure, it's fun for the day and the day after bc of the leftover fixings.
But sadly, in this country (and perhaps others), the Thanksgiving Effect is in full swing year-round.
And that is what is contributing to the many chronic conditions and metabolic dysfunction that reduce quality of life and ultimately a shortened lifespan.
Trust me, I like a bowl of ice cream and look longingly at the bags upon bags of chips in the grocery store.
The companies that manufacture these ‘goods’ are brilliant. With their food-scientists, flavor-chemists, and sensory panels (testing humans as lab-rats), they create foods that are irresistible to our palates.
They even research and develop foods that have a particularly pleasing ‘mouth-feel’, like crunchy, smooth textures that, plain and simple, feel good.
Our biology, brains, and bodies are just doing what we were made to do: seek out sugar, fat, and salt.
They make food with the intention to ‘overeat’. Overeat = $$$
I mean, when did a box of cereal from my childhood cost like six bucks or a bag of chips, eight bucks? I thought those foods were supposed to be cheap.
Just like drug dealers, once you're hooked, you will pay.
Okay, okay, I will get off my soapbox. However, it can be challenging to avoid ultra-processed, processed foods and added sugars.
Knowledge is power (back on my soapbox, it seems).
If you understand what is happening in your body, you can reclaim your power and create a healthier life.
In this article, I will break down the ‘Thanksgiving Effect’ and provide you with some manageable tools to help stop the cycle. Maybe not on actual Thanksgiving, bc please enjoy the festivities. But the entire year doesn’t need to be a Thanksgiving feast.
Let’s look at this from our Thanksgiving meal. For some of us, that is in a couple of days.
Carbohydrates become Sugar (glucose):
- Mashed potatoes
- Stuffing
- Cranberries (my mother is horrified that I like the canned ones)
- Rolls
- Dessert (The pies! pumpkin, pecan, sweet potato, apple…and you gotta have it with ice cream and whipping cream)
Put all of these together, and you have a glucose tsunami!
Your blood sugar shoots through the atmosphere, and your pancreas says, “I’m coming to the rescue!”.
The Pancreas is my Hero:
All that blood sugar (glucose) needs to get out of our bloodstream and go…somewhere. Anywhere but your bloodstream.
Because when glucose hangs around too long in the blood, it:
- Damages blood vessel walls
- Stiffens tissues
- Inflames the cardiovascular system
- Increases oxidative stress
- Inflammation
- Gut dysbiosis
Meaning it can increase risk for diabetes, cancer, heart disease, and dementia.
Back to the pancreas. Your pancreas is going to pump out a ton of insulin to pull all the sugar out of your bloodstream.
The insulin is like a key. It will unlock the door on your cells and push glucose inside.
Where does the glucose go?
- Glycogen in your muscles = fuel storage
- To your liver = overtime and excess glucose can cause fatty liver
- Hips, thighs, and belly = superficial fat
- Visceral fat = fat wrapped around your organs (which is very inflammatory)
CRASH! POW! ZAP!
After all that glucose is pushed out of your bloodstream, your blood sugar crashes.
- Sleepy
- Foggy
- Don’t want to move feeling (aka: don’t want to be part of the cleanup crew)
Liver Working Overtime:
While your pancreas is trying to get all that glucose out of your bloodstream, your liver is busy at work trying to put the sugar away by:
- Storing excess glucose as glycogen
- Converting glucose to fat
- Filtering alcohol
- Processing the fructose from dessert
- Generally, dealing with inflammatory food additives and other toxins.
But it’s so much FUN!
These foods (and the massive quantities of them) cause MASSIVE dopamine spikes.
Dopamine makes us feel good and want to do that ‘feel-good thing’ again, and again, and again.
Bring on the rush, the high, the reward…
Dopamine is such a fickle friend.
Dopamine hits fast, but drops fast.
So you are eating and feeling good. Then you want a little more (even though you're full). And a little more, and you keep coming back for more.
Hence, ‘I’m stuffed… Are there any more potatoes?’
Dopamine and Insulin = Bad Influence Friends
You eat the yummy food. Enjoy the taste, how it feels in your mouth, it’s soooo good.
That dopamine is flying.
Blood sugar spikes and insulin to the rescue.
Dopamine drops, and you want more. So hey, let’s have some more of that deliciousness.
The Fun Police: Meet Officer Vagus-Nerve
Excuse me, Ms Davidson, I am Officer Vagus Nerve.
Do you know why you are being called out?
I could issue you a citation… Because that dinner you just ate was a felony-level portion.
Instead, I am going to give you a warning.
Warning to halt the huge meals.
Huge meals stretch your stomach.
When that happens, I have to flip on my lights and shut everything else down.
Time to digest, rest, and recover..
Eat safely, and have a good day.
Your vagus nerve is the longest nerve in your body.
Officer Vagus Nerve’s patrol starts in your brainstem and travels down your neck, chest, and stomach.
His jurisdiction touches almost everything:
- Throat
- Heart
- Lungs
- Esophagus
- Stomach
- Liver
- Pancreas
- Intestines
When you eat a big meal, your stomach expands. This expansion stimulates stretch receptors, which send signals to the brain via the vagus nerve. This turns on “REST and DIGEST” mode.
The brainstem responds by activating the parasympathetic system:
- Heart rate slows
- Blood pressure lowers
- Energy is diverted away from muscles and the brain
- Digestion becomes the priority
This is why eating a big meal can make you:
- Sleepy
- Foggy
- Low energy
- Want to lie down (even nap)
Think, your classic post-carb-heavy lunch crash.
Shut everything down. We’re digesting.
Hope I didn’t just ruin Thanksgiving, sorry.
What Can We Do?
Holidays and Thanksgiving are one thing. But as I said above, living every day like it’s Thanksgiving is actually pretty commonplace.
It’s biology we are fighting here.
- Yummy processed foods filled with sugar, fat, and salt. Foods that are almost irresistible in large quantities at one time.
- Spike in glucose
- Spike in dopamine
- Spike in insulin
- Crash in sugar and dopamine
- Officer Vagus Nerve turns on rest/digest
- Crash in energy, mood, motivation
- Gimme more
And what can this vicious cycle lead to?
- Diabetes
- Weight gain
- Visceral inflammatory fat (adipose tissue)
- Cancer
- Dementia (brain health)
- Cardiovascular disease
Again, WHAT CAN WE DO ABOUT IT?
Like I said, I hope I didn’t ruin Thanksgiving for you.
Enjoy the holidays.
Enjoy family, friends, even the peace of solitude that can come with the world standing still on a national (U.S) holiday.
I just wanted to show you how we can avoid the pitfalls of this ‘New World’ designed for endless sugar, ginormous portions, and dopamine-engineered foods.
Take care,
Dr.Valorie
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