The need to rest after a meal is probably something many people can relate to. The phenomenon is usually called food coma or palt coma.
Better refers to Nikolay Kukushkinclinical assistant professor of life sciences at New York University. In a podcast episode in Gastropod, Kukushkin talks about food coma as a habitual behavior.
– Food coma is a behavioral response to eating, where the human or another animal slows down and relaxes after eating a meal. Another way to put it is “rest and digest,” says Kukushkin.
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What theories for food coma exist today?
So it is not only people who can experience fatigue after a meal, but also animals. Kukushkin says that together with colleagues he discovered Aplysia, an insulin-like hormone, which is produced in the stomachs of sea snails when they eat. This produced a reaction similar to what we call a food coma.
However, the answer to why we get a food coma is not clear. Right now, there are only theories about hormonal effects of tryptophan and an altered blood flow in the digestive system.
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Photo: Christine Olsson/TTThis is what today’s research shows
In the same podcast episode tells Subha Maniprofessor of economics and research assistant at the Center for International Policy Studies at Fordham University, and Justine Hervéassistant professor of economics at the Stevens Institute of Technology, about his research with other academics.
After studying 4,000 Indian students, the results showed that students’ performance worsened after meals. The students’ cognitive ability decreased from nine percent to five percent
– Their cognitive ability decreased by 5 percent to 9 percent in all types of tests. It is a significant reduction in one’s ability to perform, says Hervé in the podcast.
We know that today
More research is needed. However, it is possible to ensure that food coma actually has an impact on our performance and as Godare writes in his article; that it might be a good idea not to plan everything for important things right after a meal.
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