Why cutting out eggs may put you at risk of dementia

YOU may not have heard of choline, let alone wondered if you’re getting enough — but ignoring this nutrient can put your health at risk.

Found in eggs, meat, milk and fish, choline performs a range of functions, from maintaining muscles to aiding brain development. It may even help stave off dementia and fatty liver disease, which affects as many as one in three Irish people. Yet many of us — men, postmenopausal women, vegans and vegetarians, in particular — are at risk of deficiency, experts say.

One of choline’s key roles is helping the liver process fat. Without it, studies suggest, fat builds up, leading to fatty liver disease, which can raise the risk of type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure, as well as serious liver damage.

In a 2007 study, 26 men and 16 perimenopausal and 15 postmenopausal women were put on a diet containing 500mg choline for ten days. Their intake was then slashed to less than 50mg a day.

‘After just ten days, almost all the men and all the postmenopausal women showed signs of liver and muscle dysfunction in tests,’ says Steven Zeisel, a professor of nutrition and paediatrics at the University of North Carolina, in the US.

‘About 90 per cent of those showed signs of fatty liver disease; 10 per cent showed muscle breakdown when they exercised.’

Choline also speeds up creation and release of a protein that carries signals between brain cells. Research from Boston and Harvard Universities suggests it can fend off cognitive decline and protect against changes seen in dementia. A study of 1,400 people (average age 61) found those with choline-rich diets were more likely to do well on memory tests; and MRI scans suggested past high choline consumption was linked with healthier brain tissue.

Professor Zeisel says that while our livers can make choline, the gene for making it is switched on by oestrogen — so men and postmenopausal women make very little. Even young women can struggle: he found that half of women of European descent have a genetic flaw that severely limits choline production.

The nutrient also seems to play a key role in brain development in pregnancy. In a 2012 Harvard University study, seven-year-olds whose mothers ate little choline in pregnancy did less well on memory tests.

And a low choline intake during pregnancy more than doubled the odds of having a baby with a neural tube defect such as spina bifida.

The European Food Safety Authority guidance of choline intake is 400mg a day for adults (a large egg contains about 150mg), 480mg in pregnancy and 520mg for nursing mothers.

Duane Mellor, a dietitian, advises vegans: ‘A veggie chilli with quarter of a tin of kidney beans on a baked potato would give you a quarter of your daily needs.’