If you end up feeling a bit drowsy after Christmas dinner, don’t blame the bird. Turkey does have tryptophan, an amino acid that helps the body make hormones crucial for sleep, “but not enough on its own to knock you out,” says Toronto-based registered dietitian Amanda Natividad-Li. And while turkey has tryptophan, plenty of other foods have comparable levels — and even higher — without the snoozy connotations. Even pork has more tryptophan than turkey does. There are a lot of foods higher in tryptophan content than turkey — foods we eat more often than we do turkey.”Advertisement AdvertisementAdvertisement AdvertisementSo, how did the myth that eating turkey makes people sleepy take root?

Source: National Post December 25, 2025 12:30 UTC