Feeling a little like your other half doesn’t totally trust you?

Feed them an egg sandwich- and then follow it up with a chocolate mouse.

Tryptophan, nicknamed the ‘trust’ compound is produced when the human body digests eggs, chocolate as well as eggs, red meat, spinach bananas and turkey among other foods.

A study done at The Leiden University showed that the control group (all egged up) that when playing a game involving gambling and risk.

The eggy control group transferred 40% more money between one and other- they were much more trusting.

Researchers said: ‘Interpersonal trust is an essential element of social life and co-operative behaviour.

After all, most people will only work together if they expect others to do so also, making mutual trust an important precondition for establishing mutual co-operation.

We found that people who took tryptophan transferred significantly more euros than people who took the placebo.

Our results support the materialist approach that you are what you eat, the idea that the food one eats has a bearing on one’s state of mind

So the food we take may act as a cognitive enhancer that modulates the way we think and perceive the physical and social world. 

In particular, the supplementation of tryptophan or diets containing tryptophan may promote interpersonal trust in inexpensive, efficient and healthy ways.

Tryptophan is formed in the body during the digestion of some proteins and is a building block of the ‘happy hormone’ brain chemical serotonin, which chocolate also produces.

It is also a natural sedative, which has led to it being blamed for making people doze off after eating a big turkey dinner…well that and all the booze at Christmas!