Can eating right make you a better person?

While we know enough about the fact that food is closely linked with our general health, weight, waist size, energy levels, beauty, mood and even multiple lifestyle disorders (all this has been thrashed and studied extensively), the connect between what we eat and the kind of person we are: good or bad, a generous altruist or a miser, kind or rude … has not been explored much. But this question: Can food make us a better person … is worth exploring during the festive frenzy of giving and sharing. Especially because researches have been trickling in, pointing towards the fact that food works on our social and spiritual being too, besides just physical.

Firstly, science has again made it clear that skipping meals or not eating is a “really bad” idea. A study published in the journal Frontiers in Psychology suggests that eating amino acid tryptophan (TRP) rich foods can actually make you a more generous person: more charitable, more willing to donate money to help someone in need and even more trusting. This research done by researchers at Leiden University in the Netherlands is indicating that the food we eat has a complete bearing on our being (even our state of mind), and may even modify the way we deal with the “social” world. Basically what these scientists are saying is that eating a TRP-rich egg breakfast or a spinach stir fry for lunch may actually turn you into a far kinder person. Same is for gulping milk and chomping other high-TRP foods like fish, tofu, beans, cheese, seeds and nuts.

Even though science is not too clear about how this amino acid works here, the scientists are putting forth two possible factors that they feel might be at play. First is TRP’s crucial role in producing serotonin (the feel-good hormone). Earlier studies have already linked high serotonin to charitable giving and other behaviours that benefit others, and its lowered levels to social isolation and aggression. Another possibility worth exploring according to them is TRP’s link with oxytocin — the “warm and fuzzy” hormone, released after hugging and sex which again has been found to have a positive correlation with philanthropy and benediction. Since the brain region where tryptophan is converted into serotonin sends signals to the region that releases oxytocin, they feel that serotonin might amplify oxytocin levels. This study throws an unusual light on the food we eat: so now when we write about spinach I guess we can say stuff like: eat spinach to get vitamin A for your eyes and to earn trust and generosity for your ‘‘being’’, Nice! And by the way next time you need to ask your boss for a raise order him a spinach egg sandwich first, and throw in a cold coffee too.

But that’s not all! There’s some more captivating news coming in along these same lines. A study published in January in the journal Appetite has scientifically stamped the already familiar viewpoint that sharing a meal with others is a good idea. These scientists proclaim that the practice (sharing meals) actually helps one grow up to become a better person. Food has always been closely linked with cooperation, and the researchers from University of Antwerp in Belgium have found that learning how to distribute it fairly helps cut greed in a person and promote morality and equality.

They surveyed 466 Belgian students and found that those who had experienced shared meals more frequently in childhood in their family homes scored better for altruistic behaviours, particularly giving directions to strangers, offering their seats on public transportation, helping their friends move, and volunteering. So the lesson here is clear: to help your children grow up to be better people stop ordering and serving individual meals and single-sized portions to them. Ensure instead that they eat food served “family style” or on a large platter meant to share. And for us grown-ups too, I guess better late than never. The world definitely needs good people, and if that can be achieved via what food we eat and how we eat it — what can be better than that!