A recent article in The Age has detailed some additional benefits to eating eggs. Previously I’d outlined some of the nutritional benefits of eating duck eggs, but as it turns out there are even more benefits.
Essentially, eating eggs will activate serotonin (the ‘happy’ hormone) in the body. This has been known for some time. Researchers understood that Tryptophan (TRP) converts into serotonin in the human body. TRP is found in food such as eggs, poultry, beans, nuts, fish and more.
In this survey however, after eating eggs, participants in the study became more charitable. Eating foods with lots of Tryptophan can increase your willingness to give to charity by up to 100%.
Half of the participants were given a placebo, with the others given a dose of TRP.
The students were given $15 each for their participation, and were asked whether they would like to give some of their money to charity. The TRP participants donated on average twice the amount of the placebo participants.
“Our study is the first demonstration that charitable donating can be enhanced by serotonin-related food supplements.”
I think this can only be a good thing. I’ve known for some time that nice people eat eggs – and now there’s some research to back my little theory up 🙂
You can read the full research from the authors here, and there’s also some research here detailing additional health benefits of eating eggs.
