Experts have explained what not to eat on Christmas day to avoid 'food coma'

Published 12:47 23 Dec 2024 GMT

You don't want to be dozing off before the end of the day

There are few days in the year which have more meticulous planning going into them than Christmas Day, so you'd best not spoil things by sending yourself into a 'food coma' and missing a big chunk of it.

You simply can't doze off before the day is done, there's a new Wallace and Gromit to watch as well as the very definitely final episode of Gavin and Stacey to get through.

Your Christmas dinner might be the centrepiece of the day but you ought to be careful not to load of on things which will leave you dozing off before the good telly begins.

According to Wired, the finger of blame has long been pointed at too much turkey as the cause of this fatigue, as apparently it's full of a chemical called tryptophan which makes a person sleepy, but it's a case of misaligned blame here.

While turkey does have some of the sleepy chemical, it's not exactly dripping with it any more than other dishes of meat, and the experts say what's really sending you into a food coma are all those carb-heavy side dishes.

Food and nutrition scientist Dr Emma Beckett said that a food coma was a real thing and the high carb dishes you might be serving up at Christmas dinner were the real cause.

She explained that carbs need insulin to process and this might affect other parts of your body with the consequence of making you drowsy and leaving you in the dreaded food coma.

Your eyelids might be feeling incredibly heavy before Wallace has even munched his first cheese-laden cracker of the new movie and you'll know that's you done for another Christmas.

Even if everyone is blaming excessive consumption of turkey for the food coma, it's really those spuds, sauces and side dishes that should bear the burden of blame.

In general, the vast amounts you're likely to consume over Christmas is part of the food coma phenomenon, as you'll be tucking into plates of food piled high with gluttonous portions.

That's going to make you feel heavy and sluggish, with your sofa beckoning as it makes many promises of comfort.

While one of the possible solutions to ward off the food coma might be to eat less, there have also been warnings about keeping leftovers around for too long.

You're unlikely to get through the entire dinner on the day itself, especially if you're trying to avoid overeating, but you ought not to leave it too long before chowing down on what's left over.