Eggs have had a complicated history when it comes to health and nutrition. First, they’re good, then they’re bad, then food scientists say they’re good again. Well, researchers are once again placing all their eggs in the “good” basket, finding that these controversial sources of cholesterol may be even better your our brains than we thought.
A team from the University of California-San Diego has discovered that older women who eat eggs each week may experience less memory loss and less decline in their executive brain functions over time. This is the latest research to suggest that eggs, a food often criticized for their high cholesterol content, could actually benefit cognitive health among certain groups.
The study, published in the journal Nutrients, examined a group of 890 adults over the age of 55 from the Rancho Bernardo study in California. The participants kept track of their egg consumption from 1988 to 1991. They also underwent a series of cognitive tests during that time and once again between 1992 and 1996, measuring their global cognition, executive function, and semantic memory.
When the researchers analyzed the data by sex, they found that among women, those who ate more eggs each week experienced less decline in category fluency — a test of verbal abilities and executive function — over the four-year period. This association remained even after accounting for factors like age, education, lifestyle behaviors, cholesterol levels, and each participant’s calorie and protein intake.
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