A Little Thanksgiving...Turkey Facts

Thanksgiving is around the corner. And in the spirit of eating Turkey, I thought I'd share some random turkey facts with you all.

• A male turkey is a tom. A female is a hen. Babies are called poults.
• A mature turkey has 3,500 feathers.
• The largest turkey on record was 86 pounds.
• Wild turkeys can run 20 miles per hour and fly 55 miles per hour.
• Only the tom turkey gobbles. The hen makes clucking noises. A tom's gobble can be heard a mile away.
• Forty-Five million are eaten at Thanksgiving.
• At current Thanksgiving feasts, over 675 million pounds of turkey are consumed.
• It is NOT the turkey that makes you sleepy after a Thanksgiving feast. Tryptophan can only make you sleepy if taken on an empty stomach without protein - hardly the case on Thanksgiving! It's the carbohydrates in the other foods we eat with our meal that make us sleepy - neither of which are traditional from the original pilgrim's diet.
• Turkey is a lean meat packed with health benefits. It is low in fat and contains less amounts of saturated fats total, fat and less cholesterol than other types of meat. Turkey is also packed with protein. A single serving of turkey can provide the daily requirement of protein. Finally, turkey has good amounts of B vitamins, which play an important role in energy production.

Happy Turkey Day!!