Thursday, Nov. 22 is Thanksgiving and most people are going to be loading up their plates and bellies with delicious, hearty food and that can lead to what's commonly called a food coma! Our fitness expert, Jody Trierweiler, joined us in the studio to share few ways to avoid going into a food coma.
Trierweiler wanted to start with dispelling a couple of myths. Everyone says turkey is loaded with tryptophan, which makes you tired. She said turkey doesn't have any more tryptophan than beef or chicken. The medical term for food coma is "postprandial somnolence" and it's from overeating protein and salt.
To avoid a food coma, Trierweiler says you need to watch your portion sizes. The amount of turkey you should have is about the size of a standard deck of cards, roughly 3 ounces. When it comes to pie, you should have an only an eighth of the pie, which is about the size of a light bulb. For mash potatoes, you should only have one-half of a cup, or about a size of the soap bar.
These traditional foods are the biggest culprits and if you want to avoid a food coma. Trierweiler also says you need to move around after the meal. You don't need to exercise but you should do something like get up and clear the table and walk around. This will help lower your blood sugar and pull the glucose out of your blood stream.
For more fitness and health tips from Jody you can find her on social media at Jody's FitLife.