It's Not the Turkey—It's Your Indoor Air Quality
You know that post-turkey drowsiness everyone blames on tryptophan? I’m not so sure that’s what’s really going on.
After spending years working in labs with clean rooms—watching exactly what grows on petri dishes even in the most controlled environments—I’ve learned that air quality matters more than most people think. And on Thanksgiving? Your indoor air is working overtime.
Picture this: Your oven’s been going since 6 AM. The house is sealed up tight because it’s November in New York. You’ve got anywhere from 8 to 20 people crammed into your dining room, all breathing the same air over and over. Dad jokes are flying. Uncle Bob’s telling the same story he tells every year. Your mother-in-law is asking when you’re going to have another baby. Everyone’s exhaling carbon dioxide with every breath, every laugh, every passive-aggressive comment.
And if you’re cooking with gas? We need to talk.
What Your Gas Stove Is Actually Doing
Here’s something that shocked me when I started researching this: gas stoves can push your indoor nitrogen dioxide levels past outdoor air quality standards in just a few minutes. Not hours. Minutes.
When I tell customers this, they look at me like I’ve grown a second head. “But I’ve been cooking with gas my whole life!” Yeah, and you’ve probably felt like crap in your kitchen your whole life too, you just didn’t know why.
Natural gas combustion releases nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide, formaldehyde, and—this one really gets people—benzene, which is a known carcinogen. Studies show that homes with gas stoves have nitrogen dioxide concentrations that are 50-400% higher than homes with electric stoves. That’s not a typo. Up to four times higher.
But wait, you’ve got an electric stove so you’re fine? Not exactly. Any cooking creates indoor air pollution, especially when you’re heating fats and oils at high temperatures. If you’ve got burnt bits stuck to the bottom of your oven (I know you do, we all do), that’s producing carbon monoxide too.
Even electric stoves need proper ventilation. And no, cracking a window while your exhaust fan runs doesn’t count as “bringing fresh air in”—you’re just creating negative pressure that can pull combustion gases backwards down your chimney or from your water heater. Fun times.
The Carbon Dioxide Problem Nobody Talks About
Carbon monoxide is the scary one everyone knows about—get a detector, don’t die, we’re all on board with that. But carbon dioxide? Most people don’t even think about it.
Every single person at your Thanksgiving table is exhaling CO₂. In a tight modern house with a bunch of people gathered for hours, those levels climb fast. Normal outdoor air has about 400 parts per million (ppm) of CO₂. In a crowded room with poor ventilation, you can easily hit 2,500 ppm.
Research from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory found that at elevated CO₂ levels, people showed measurable decreases in decision-making ability. A Harvard study found that better air quality could boost cognitive performance by 101%.
That foggy, can’t-think-straight feeling after a big meal? It might not be the turkey at all. Your brain literally works better when you’re breathing better air.
My Mother Was Right (Don’t Tell Her I Said That)
Growing up, my mother was obsessed with Lüften—the German practice of airing out the house. She’d throw open all the windows for 10 minutes, even in the dead of winter, driving the rest of us crazy. “You’re letting all the heat out!” we’d whine. But she needed to air out the house, and she knew what she was doing.
In my family, after every Thanksgiving meal, we’d all take a long walk outside. Not because anyone made us—we needed the fresh air. After being cooped up in the house all day cooking and eating, getting outside just felt necessary.
Turns out Germans have entire techniques for this window-opening thing: Stoßlüften means opening windows wide for 5-10 minutes to completely exchange the air. Querlüften is opening windows on opposite sides to create cross ventilation. They don’t mess around.
The German Solution We Should All Steal
In my house now, I do the same thing—open the front and back doors to get a good cross-breeze going. Which means about once a week, my dog Butters escapes and I’m chasing him down the street with a bag of cheese. He’s a Puerto Rican sato, which means he’s part street dog, part lovebug, and 100% pain in the ass when it comes to open doors. My neighbors have gotten used to seeing me in my pajamas waving cheddar around at 7 AM. “Butters! BUTTERS! I have CHEESE!” He always comes back. He’s a lover, not a fighter—just extremely enthusiastic about greeting other dogs.
But here’s the thing my mom understood that took me years of HVAC work to fully appreciate: modern houses are basically airtight boxes. Which is great for energy efficiency! Terrible for air quality. The Germans figured this out decades ago, which is why they invented the Energy Recovery Ventilator.
What an ERV Actually Does (In Non-Engineering Speak)
I call ERVs “fresh air machines” when I talk to customers, because that’s what they do. But the engineering behind them is actually pretty elegant.
An ERV continuously exchanges your stale indoor air with fresh outdoor air, but here’s the clever part: it recovers the heat and moisture from the outgoing air and transfers it to the incoming air. So in winter, it preheats the cold incoming air with warmth from your exhaust. In summer, it pre-cools the hot incoming air. You get fresh air without destroying your heating and cooling bills.
The two air streams never actually mix—they pass through separate channels in a heat exchanger core. No cross-contamination, just energy transfer. The good ones can recover 60-95% of the energy that would otherwise get thrown away.
Besides that, ERVs filter the incoming air. Last summer when we had all those wildfire smoke days, my customers with ERVs were sitting pretty while everyone else was taping plastic over their windows and wondering why their houses smelled like a campfire. The luxury real estate market is actually starting to sell homes based on air quality now. Which is kind of wild when you think about it—clean air shouldn’t be a luxury amenity, it should be baseline.
Why This Matters for Your Health (Especially If You Have Kids)
After years of watching what grows on petri dishes—even in clean rooms where we controlled everything—I can’t unsee what I know about indoor air quality. When you add kids to the mix, the stakes get higher.
Studies show that kids living in homes with gas stoves have a 42% increased risk of asthma. Forty-two percent. That’s not a small number.
Elevated CO₂ levels are linked to sick building syndrome, which sounds made up but is very real: headaches, fatigue, difficulty concentrating, eye and throat irritation, respiratory issues. Sound familiar? That’s most people after a long meeting in a conference room or a holiday dinner.
Humidity matters more than people realize. ERVs help maintain that sweet spot of 30-50% relative humidity, which is huge for respiratory health. Too dry, and your mucous membranes dry out, making you more susceptible to viruses. Ever notice how everyone gets sick in winter? Part of that is indoor air quality and humidity levels. Viral particles can stay airborne for up to 16 hours in dry air. With proper humidity, they become heavy enough to drop to surfaces where they’re way less likely to infect people.
This isn’t theoretical for me. I’m a volunteer firefighter, I’ve got two teenagers at home, and I’ve seen what happens when people ignore their indoor air quality. It’s not just comfort—it’s health.
What You Can Actually Do About It
If you already have an ERV, great—just make sure it’s properly maintained. If you don’t, here’s what you can do right now to improve your Thanksgiving (and every other day):
If you cook with gas:
Turn on your range hood every single time. Make sure it actually vents outside—about half of range hoods just recirculate the air through a filter, which does exactly nothing for these pollutants. If yours recirculates, open windows while cooking. Cook on the back burners when possible because they’re closer to the hood. Get a carbon monoxide detector rated for low-level detection and put it in or near your kitchen. Please, I’m begging you, never use your stove to heat your house. I’ve seen this go bad.
For everyone:
Practice Stoßlüften—open your windows wide for 5-10 minutes to completely exchange the air. You’d be amazed what a difference this makes. Create cross-ventilation when you can. If you want to get fancy, buy a CO₂ monitor. They’re not expensive, and watching those numbers climb when you have people over is genuinely eye-opening.
Keep your humidity between 30-50%. Too dry? Get a humidifier. Too humid? You might need a dehumidifier or better ventilation. If you’re seeing condensation on your windows regularly, that’s a sign your ventilation isn’t keeping up with your moisture load.
The Fall Maintenance Thing
Since we’re heading into the holidays, this is actually the perfect time to get your HVAC system checked out. No, I’m not just saying that because I own an HVAC company (though obviously I do and would love your business).
A good fall maintenance visit catches problems before they become emergencies. We’re checking:
- Is your ERV actually running and exchanging air properly?
- Are your filters clean enough to do their job?
- Your heat pump or furnace—ready for actual winter?
- Any carbon monoxide risks we need to address?
- Everything running efficiently, or are you burning money?
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gone to a house for a routine maintenance call and found something that could have turned into a disaster. Cracked heat exchangers. Backdrafting water heaters. ERVs that haven’t been running for months because nobody realized they were supposed to be on.
Better to find out now than at 3 PM on Thanksgiving when you’ve got a house full of people and something quits working.
What This All Actually Means
Here’s my take after years of lab work and now doing HVAC: we’ve gotten really good at building energy-efficient houses. Sometimes too good. We’ve sealed everything up so tight that we’ve created new problems. Air quality is invisible. Carbon dioxide buildup? Can’t see that either. You just feel tired and foggy and blame it on the food or the company or getting older.
But it doesn’t have to be that way.
Fresh air isn’t a luxury. It’s not something only rich people with fancy houses deserve. It’s literally a basic requirement for your brain and body to function properly. Florence Nightingale figured this out in the 1800s. The Germans figured this out decades ago. We’ve got the technology to have both—energy efficiency AND healthy indoor air.
You just have to know it exists and actually use it.
This Thanksgiving (And Every Day After)
So this Thanksgiving, when everyone’s sprawled on your couches looking zombified, don’t blame the turkey. Check your air quality. Open some windows. Turn on your ERV if you have one. Get some fresh air moving through your house.
Your guests might not thank you—they probably won’t even notice. But their brains will work better, they’ll feel more energized, and maybe, just maybe, Uncle Bob will keep his annual story a little shorter because he’s actually awake enough to read the room.
If you’re ready to stop choosing between freezing and breathing stale air, give us a call. We’ll get you set up with an ERV and you can stop chasing cognitive performance with caffeine and start actually fixing the problem.
Because honestly? Life’s too short to spend the holidays feeling like garbage in your own home.
Want to talk about improving your indoor air quality? We’re Shelter Air—woman-owned, science-driven, and we actually understand the chemistry and physics behind why your house feels the way it does. Schedule a fall maintenance visit or ask us about ERVs. We cover the Hudson Valley and Westchester regions, and we promise not to talk down to you or try to sell you stuff you don’t need.
If you want to dive deeper into the research:
- EPA on Indoor Air Pollution from Cooking
- Minnesota Dept of Health on Indoor CO₂
- Rocky Mountain Institute report on gas stove health effects
- Lawrence Berkeley Lab study on CO₂ and decision-making
- ASHRAE standards for Energy Recovery Ventilators
- Colorado Dept of Public Health on gas stove emissions
The science is solid. The solutions exist. You just have to decide you’re worth it.
Is the tryptophan in turkey really what makes everyone sleepy after Thanksgiving dinner?
Probably not. Turkey actually has less tryptophan than chicken. What’s more likely: you’ve got 8-20 people in a sealed-up house, everyone breathing out carbon dioxide for hours, and CO₂ levels climbing to 2,500 ppm or higher. Research shows elevated CO₂ measurably impairs cognitive function. Add in a gas stove pumping out nitrogen dioxide and formaldehyde, and your brain is basically running on fumes. Open some windows for 10 minutes and see if everyone perks up.
I have a range hood—doesn't that take care of the pollution from my gas stove?
Maybe, maybe not. About half of range hoods just recirculate air through a filter without actually venting anything outside. That does nothing for nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide, or benzene. Check whether yours vents to the exterior or just blows filtered air back into your kitchen. If it recirculates, open windows while you cook. And use the back burners when you can—they’re closer to the hood so it captures more of what you’re producing.
What's an ERV and why would I need one?
An ERV (Energy Recovery Ventilator) continuously swaps your stale indoor air for fresh outdoor air—but it recovers the heat and moisture so you’re not just throwing money out the window. The two air streams never mix; they pass through a heat exchanger that transfers energy. You get fresh, filtered air without wrecking your heating bill. During last summer’s wildfire smoke, my customers with ERVs were breathing easy while everyone else was sealing their houses with plastic.
