Coffee Hero

Is post-feasting caffeine necessary to counteract the sleep-inducing effects of turkey?  Not according to Coco Ballantyne’s Scientific American article, Does Turkey Make You Sleepy? Ballantyne says it’s more likely that dessert, overeating, or adult beverages are the reasons for the exhaustion so many people experience after their Thanksgiving feast.

“Studies have indicated that stretching of the small intestine induces sleepiness and a protein–fat loading of the stomach induces sleepiness,” says biologist H. Craig Heller at Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif., “and, more blood going to the gastrointestinal tract means less going elsewhere,”—for example, the brain or skeletal muscle.

We at Coffee Hero wish you a happy Thanksgiving.  Just don’t let anything you learn here dissuade you from capping your Thanksgiving feast with a good cup of coffee.  It will give you one more reason to feel thankful.

Photo Thanksgiving Turkey by Flickr user tuchodi.

Tags: caffeine, scientific american, sleep, thanksgiving, turkey