‘No beer for you’

MONTPELIER — Planning to wash down that turkey, pumpkin pie, stuffing and cranberries with a tasty malt beverage? Don’t go to the Three Penny Taproom because it is closed today.
“I know, it’s lame,” the Penny crew said in its weekly email update, “but no one wants to work after the tryptophan kicks in.”
Perhaps, but research shows that the amount of tryptophan in turkey is not higher than any other meat. And it shows that the drowsiness many feel after the big meal is caused by what else is eaten on Thanksgiving.
A high-carbohydrate meal triggers the release of insulin, which triggers the uptake of large neutral branched-chain amino acids, but not tryptophan, into muscle. The increased ratio of tryptophan to BCAA in the blood reduces competition at the large neutral amino acid transporter and eventually leads to the tryptophan being converted to serotonin and then into melatonin, which makes people sleepy.
So the turkey didn’t do it; it was all those tasty rolls, potatoes and that second helping of stuffing.
Meantime, the pub will be back in business on Friday with normal hours.