Sarah Berry

Eating eggs can make you kinder Eating eggs may be good for others as well as yourself. reports.

SEROTONIN, the happy hormone, turns you into a good egg. And eating eggs activates serotonin. Eggs, it turns out, might also activate your charity instinct.

In an unusual study, researchers decided to find out how much more charitable we become after eating eggs.

They already understood that serotonin, as well as maintaining mood balance and our sense of happiness, is associated with social behaviour – acts of generosity and kindness, for instance.

The researchers also knew that an amino acid, called tryptophan (TRP) – found in whole eggs, poultry, beans, oats, fish, cheese, tofu, seeds and nuts – converts into serotonin in the body.

Now the researchers, from Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition in The Netherlands, have found that eating foods full of tryptophan can increase our willingness to give to charity by as much as double.

The team took 32 healthy students and gave half the group a placebo and the other half the equivalent TRP of three eggs.

All participants were instructed not to eat or drink anything other than water the night before the experiment mornings.

They were also required to refrain from alcohol or drug use for the duration of the study’s period.

The students were given $15 each for their participation in the study and were asked whether they would like to leave any of their reward to charity.

Those who took the TRP donated, on average, double the amount donated by the placebo participants.