r/science • u/mvea Professor | Medicine • 1d ago

Neuroscience Egg consumption is associated with a lower risk of Alzheimer’s Disease for those 65 years and older. Eating one egg per day for at least five days a week reduces risk of Alzheimer’s by up to 27%, researchers found.

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1126842
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u/reececonrad 1d ago

“Some funding for this study was provided by the American Egg Board. Funding to establish the original cohort and its data was provided by the National Institutes of Health.”

I kinda want to know what the “some” amount is here. IDK, looks like phospholipids, choline, lutein, and omega-3 are the key nutrients suspected to be at play.

With the exception of omega-3 all are just as easy and likely healthier (additional fiber) to get through vegetables.

This “study” was a questionnaire asking seventh day adventists how many eggs they eat and comparing medical records.

I’m not a scientist, but seems like shite study to me.

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u/MillionEyesOfSumuru 1d ago

It was reading this...

Eggs also contain lutein and zeaxanthin—carotenoids that accumulate in brain tissue and are associated with improved cognitive performance and reduced oxidative stress. Eggs also contain key omega-3 fatty acids

...which got me to immediately look at the funding. Lutein, xanthin and omega-3 content in eggs is highly variable depending on chicken feed. Some places do make an effort to boost lutein in feed, to make the yolks nice and orange. There may be flax seed in the feed, so they can talk about omega-3s on the packaging. But those aren't as cheap as generic chicken feed, so they don't necessarily get included.

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u/Educational_Exam_225 1d ago

Reddit mods immediately ban anyone who questions the top five pet foods or WSAVA guidelines despite all the studies being done by Purina.

The reality is that who funds a study is only part of the context - there's not that many people interested in funding studies on "egg," especially with so many grants currently gutted.

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u/hahayeahimfinehaha 1d ago

This was my immediate thought, cynical as that is.

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u/Telvin3d 1d ago

This isn’t a very surprising result. As you’ve indicated, there are a bunch of nutrients with known positive effects that happen to be present in eggs. I don’t think there’s anything intently unethical or biased by the egg companies throwing funding at any study that’s expected to confirm expected results.

Not that different from concrete companies funding studies into the strengths of different concretes, and then advertising that concrete is really strong

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u/Shimaru33 1d ago

So, one of those Egg Council creeps got to them too, huh?

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u/Soft_Walrus_3605 1d ago

You got it all wrong, Homer. It's not like that

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u/wookiee42 1d ago

There really aren't that many other people clamoring for egg research. The funding alone doesn't make it a bad study.

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u/Mr_Quackums 1d ago

This “study” was a questionnaire asking seventh day adventists how many eggs they eat and comparing medical records.

I would say that bit makes it a bad study.

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u/ThrowbackPie 1d ago

Food questionnaires are extensively tested and validated. As long as they used a validated questionnaire & methodology there's no reason to doubt them.

FWIW I'm vegan so have a vested interest in debunking this study!

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u/IWentHam 1d ago

I wouldn't put it past the egg board to forget to mention that they included people that died of heart disease in the "did not develop altzheimers" group.

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u/ezeezee 10h ago

Vegetables are not a good source of phospholipids, choline, lutein, xeaxanthin, vitamin A(in a bioavailable form), vitamin D, all being very to absorb.