Health Zone: Want to be generous? Eat eggs! – Study

Need a bank loan? Perhaps you should make sure your bank manager has eaten eggs for breakfast. Or are you hoping to ask for money from someone? Praying that the person eats eggs before getting down to business might be a good idea. This is all because egg has been found to do more than give proteins and vitamins to the body.
Out of all the factors that influence people’s kindness and willingness to help, such as religion, upbringing, empathy, unavoidable return of favours, among others, one thing that may not readily make the list is the kind of food people eat.
But it’s rather amazing to note that eating eggs, yes! Eggs, can activate or increase human’s instinct to help others, especially in giving out money.
Apart from eating to nourish the body, for pleasure or some other purposes, one thing that may not readily come to mind and seems hard to believe is that some food can increase the willingness to donate money or influence how people help others.
That was the product of a study by some scientists. They found that a compound in an egg called tryptophan, acts on brain chemicals like serotonin hormone, (also known as the happy hormone in human beings) which triggers the charity instinct of the consumer, whether man or woman.
The study further revealed that high levels of tryptophan, an essential amino acid, play a key role in the production of serotonin, a brain chemical which is involved in mood and social behaviour, including co-operation and friendliness, while low levels have been associated with social isolation and aggression.
In other words, when people eat eggs, at least three, as recommended by the study, the tryptophan compound found in eggs activates the serotonin hormone in humans and stimulates them to donate more money. In fact, some researchers had earlier said that an imbalance in serotonin levels may influence mood in a way that leads to depression, which explains how powerful the serotonin hormone is in influencing moods.
The study, carried out by psychologists from Leiden University in the Netherlands, pointed out that the tryptophan compound found in eggs could increase people’s generosity and make them to donate twice as much as they would have…