If you were a fan of Seinfeld you'll remember the Thanksgiving episode. Jerry starts dating a new girl that has an awesome toy collection. And since this happens to be right around the time of Thanksgiving, Jerry and the gang decide they will 'drug' his new girlfriend by feeding her a turkey dinner rich in tryptophan which is believed to induce sleepiness. Once they manage to induce a turkey coma in this poor girl can Jerry et al break out all the toys and play.[caption id="attachment_4743" align="aligncenter" width="300"] What's the stuff in turkey that makes you sleepy? Tryptophan!So what exactly is tryptophan? Well it's an essential amino acid meaning our bodies cannot make it and it's essential that we get in our diets. And just to back up a bit, amino acids are the building blocks of proteins. When we have a particular collection of amino acids, arranged is a very specific order and give this collection of amino acids a 3D shape we have a protein. I usually like to coach and teach with analogies so here's one for amino acids.If we had a bead necklace that was balled up and folded into a specific shape that would represent the protein. All of the beads on the string represent the amino acids. If certain amino are missing, it's not the same protein. If the order of the amino acids i.e. the order of the beds on the string, changes then it's not the same protein. And if the shape of the balled up necklace changes, it's not the same protein.But enough about protein chemistry, what does tryptophan do and why does that matter? Well tryptophan is a pre-cursor of a number of other important metabolites including: hormones such as serotonin which then leads to melatonin and vitamins such niacin (B3). If our...