Food Coma also known as Postprandial somnolence happens when you take a heavy lunch or meal then you hit the couch or bed room and you spend rest of your time in sitting, not moving due to laziness, sleepiness.
Food Coma is very common and you probably have already been there. If you skip your breakfast and take lunch this will cause your body to pump more blood to your gut to digest the food and decrease the blood flow to your brain making you feel sleepy.
Symptoms of Food Coma
Drowsiness or sleepiness
Lack of Energy
Lack of focus and Concentration
Why you feel Sleepy After heavy Meal?
Food high in tryptophan, which is an essential amino acid can cause food coma by making the body produce the serotonin hormone. This hormone makes your body feel tired and sleepy.
Foods that are high in tryptophan are as Following
Milk, canned tuna, Turkey and chicken, Oats, cheese, nuts and seeds, bread ,chocolate, fruits.
Salman poultry eggs spinach seeds milk Soya products cheese
Carbohydrate helps the body produce tryptophan.
Some of the food items that are rich in carbohydrates include pasta ,rice ,white bread ,cakes ,cookies, doughnuts , muffins, milk, sugar and candy.
Protein and carbohydrate together make you feel tired and sleepy so before you want to take heavy meals and you want to be awake, you may want to think about the food items that you are eating.
While food coma is not bad, if you are tired of this situation and you are having it every day and you want to get rid of it, then you should consult your doctor. Some of the suggestions we can give you like you should take less quantity of the meal because larger quantities of meal take a larger effort to digest and make you more drowsy.