 Do the chemicals in a Thanksgiving to furky send you to sleep? Every year around the end of November you hear stories about something in turkey meat that makes you want to curl up and sleep after a Thanksgiving dinner But is this phenomenon limited to meat eaters alone or does the soy-based to furky come with the same Soporific side effects that something in turkey meat is tryptophan One of the essential amino acids we all need to remain alive Tryptophan is an essential building block of proteins in our bodies But it's also used in the production of serotonin a neurotransmitter that helps regulate sleep patterns amongst other things So that need to doze off after Thanksgiving dinner the argument goes is because turkey meat is stuffed full of tryptophan But what happens if you eat to furky instead? According to the United States Department of Agriculture Tofu which as you might have guessed is what most to furky's are made of Contains less than half the tryptophan in roasted turkey on the other hand the Ministry of Education Culture Sports Science and Technology of Japan Claims tofu has over twice the tryptophan content as turkey the bottom line though is Tofurky contains Tryptophan and Depending on whether you have a us or Japanese tofu based to furky It could have an even greater knockout effect than its meaty counterpart Except that the Thanksgiving tryptophan induced torpa is a myth as Matt Shipman explains in the article linked below You can't get enough of the chemical into the brain simply by eating turkey or tofurky to have an appreciable effect Instead that post Thanksgiving need to nap is probably due to your body doing its best to digest the results of your overindulgence Either that or a subconscious desire to avoid cleaning up after the meals finished and as a final piece of trivia if you want to know what food has the highest level of tryptophan It's the stellar sea lion which comes in at over five times the amount of tryptophan as roast turkey wait for wait So if you really want to experiment with Thanksgiving induced lethargy, you know what to cook next year For more insights into the science of risk, don't forget to subscribe to risk points