Egg heads

Egg heads

Dear Sir,

I was concerned that your headline article in Mature Times issue 263 March 2014 might give readers the impression that eggs contribute to Alzheimer’s when probably the reverse is true.

Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, divided a group of men in their eighties into two groups: the men in one group were senile and required constant care and in the other group had all their faculties intact and looked after themselves.  They were all given dietary surveys.  Only one difference was found in the diets of the two groups: those in the mentally alert group ate at least one egg a day.

Is that so surprising?  When I was a boy, we had a fried egg for breakfast every day: that was normal.  As long as the egg is fried in butter or animal fat, it should be fine.  It is better if both eggs and fat can be obtained from pasture-fed birds and animals.

Apparently, in the Orient eggs are considered to be brain food.  Eggs contain lots of cholesterol and the brain is made of cholesterol, so it makes sense, doesn’t it?

Thanks,

Peter Eyres