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04.01.2025

Eggs are packed with cholesterol, but they're not bad for your brain

In the almost bygone days when scientists were still terrified of cholesterol, there were fears that a high egg intake would cause long-term damage to the brain. According to a small American epidemiological study, this is not the case.

Study
According to a 2017 meta-analysis, the risk of Alzheimer's disease later in life increases with the amount of cholesterol present in the blood during your life. [Alzheimer's Dis. 2017, 56, 215-28.]

You can see this in the table below. Click on it for a larger version.

Although not all associations that epidemiological research finds are also causal associations, some scientists use this association as an argument to advise against eating eggs and other foods high in cholesterol. Epidemiologists from the University of California San Diego wondered whether this advice is justified.

The researchers analyzed data from 890 healthy people over the age of 55 who were collected in the Rancho Bernardo Study. The study participants had filled out questionnaires about their diets in 1988-1991. Their cognitive abilities were determined with standard tests in 1992-1996.

Incidentally, the study was funded by the American Egg Board's Egg Nutrition Center.

Results
The study participants who consumed relatively many eggs were just as mentally alert as the study participants who ate few or no eggs. The scores of all study participants deteriorated, regardless of whether they ate many or few eggs. In the women, the scores for the verbal fluency test deteriorated even less in the group that ate many eggs.

A high score on a verbal fluency test means that you can name many items that fall into a certain category in a short time. These can be vegetables, animal species or pop stars. The more items you can name, the better your cognitive skills.

Conclusion
"Egg intake was unrelated to a decline in performance on other cognitive tests in women and men", the researchers summarize.

"The lack of cognitive decline with egg consumption is reassuring and suggests that despite having high levels of dietary cholesterol, eggs do not have a detrimental effect and may even have a role in the maintenance of cognitive function over time."

"Eggs are readily available and a low-cost option to obtain protein and nutrients linked to health in other studies."

Source:
Nutrients. 2024, 16, 2765.

More:
Onions, garlic, eggs, olive oil and beans protect against melanoma 05.10.2019
Egg per day reduces risk of fatal cardiovascular disease 29.05.2019
Strength athletes' heart and blood vessels can take a couple of eggs for breakfast 20.05.2015
Eggs not dangerous for heart and blood vessels 06.03.2013
Weight loss better with eggs for breakfast 08.09.2008

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