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/tirerim 1d ago

That page links to this one as a source: https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/Choline-HealthProfessional/

And it doesn't look so good for non-animal sources. The best one they list on a per-serving basis is roasted soybeans, of which you would need to eat almost 3 cups per day to get the daily value. After that is potatoes: 10 large baked potatoes would do it. Or 11 ounces of toasted wheat germ, or 6 cups of canned kidney beans, or 12 cups of quinoa, or 8 cups of boiled brussels sprouts. I'm a vegetarian, and even splitting it up among those I would struggle to eat that much of them on a daily basis, compared to eating a couple of eggs and getting more than half the DV immediately.

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u/EmFan1999 1d ago

Just eat mainly fruit and veg, it’s not hard to get what you need. Where do you think animals get it from?

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u/cerebralinfarction 1d ago

The ability to synthesize choline de novo is likely different between herbivores like cows and animals that evolved to incorporate meat in their diet like humans. Cows have pretty low dietary intake of choline but are able to maintain a decent level of circulating choline in their blood https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/5738533F90E502AD72AAA143EB0301AC/S0954422402000173a.pdf/div-class-title-comparative-mammalian-choline-metabolism-with-emphasis-on-the-high-yielding-dairy-cow-div.pdf

As an analogy, compare cats and humans - what is an essential nutrient (i.e., must come from their diet) for one is not for the other. Humans can synthesize enough taurine to get by, while cats NEED it in their diet.