The brain nutrient vegans need to know about

People who eat vegan or plant-based diets should ensure they are getting enough of a key, but little-known, brain nutrient, say experts.

Choline, which helps transfer signals between nerve cells, is highest in dairy foods and meat.

Nutritionist Emma Derbyshire told a BMJ journal that people not eating those foods may not get sufficient choline.

But the British Dietetic Association said, with planning, it was possible to obtain enough from a vegan diet.


No need to exclude animal products 'completely'

Dr Derbyshire, an independent nutrition and biomedical science consultant, wrote in BMJ Nutrition, Prevention and Health that the UK was falling behind other countries by not recommending or monitoring dietary levels of the nutrient.

The US does have "adequate intake" levels of 425mg per day for women and 550 mg per day for men.

Dr Derbyshire said: "I'm looking in the first instance to raise awareness. But I also think if people are eating a plant-based diet, particularly if they are women of childbearing age, they should look at supplements."
www.bbc.co.uk...

Really? I've read lots of data which suggests that only about 10% of the US population is getting sufficient choline in their diets. And yet, strangely, symptoms of deficiency are rare.

Why is choline so important for our brains? You only need to look at the drugs used to treat people with Alzheimer's Disease - acetylcholinesterase inhibitors. These increase the amount of acetylcholine in the brain. And the body needs choline to make acetylcholine.

The vast majority of people are likely going to be deficient. The problem is that, while choline is present in many different foods, there just isn't enough of it to meet daily requirements.

So, unless you eat beef liver every day or take supplements, you are probably low on choline.

Maybe you found the reason that vegans are so angry and stupid!

And I thought it was the secret jealousy and marijuana!

Just kidding

The information you gave on Choline especially the connection to Alzheimer's was interesting. I’ve never heard of it before .

Thanks for that .

As for adding nutrients to vegans brains .

That ship has sailed .

originally posted by: chris_stibrany
Maybe you found the reason that vegans are so angry and stupid!

And I thought it was the secret jealousy and marijuana!

Just kidding

The lack of this nutrient must cause you to be a pretentious jerk. That or it causes you to blurt out into every conversation you have that you are vegan.

a reply to: CJCrawley

Wish i had a place to buy locusts, they look delicious,

I bet there is lots of this nutrient in them..

Need to get a new pet lizard, would make for a great excuse to grow em, and occasionally snag some for the ol belly.

a reply to: CJCrawley

Seems a glass of milk, some peanut butter and a couple of eggs would do the trick.

a reply to: Metallicus

It's based on real life conversations with vegans who got into shouting matches with me and my wife when we just wanted to talk about something else....anything else...

originally posted by: dogstar23
a reply to: CJCrawley

Seems a glass of milk, some peanut butter and a couple of eggs would do the trick.

Possibly but quite high in fat too. I would avoid dairy.

Milk is baby food. Should only be consumed by infants and adults with eating problems.

To make acetylcholine, you need choline and you need an acetal group member. Think about putting a pickle on that hamburger. We have microbes and metabolism to help to make acetyl in our blood.

Choline and Betaine are similar, some of us can convert both ways easily, some people can only go one of the two ways, and others are poor at making the enzymes or consume chemistries that disable the converting enzymes.

I looked myself up with my dna app. It looks like I need to consume both betaine and choline, so I need both the plant and animal versions in my diet. I do get enough choline, I am light on the betaine so I do have to take a supplement of betaine occasionally. If you are a poor methylator then you need the methyls on either or both of these nutrients in your diet. Betaine can help bring down homocysteine, and a shortage of betaine will result in alzheimer disease just like too little acetylcholine will. Both betaine and choline are in the brain.

Choline does not work alone, other nutrients are needed with it. A few I can think of are folate and B12. Those two moderate choline levels somewhat. I would write more but I am out working on my granddaughters old CR-V trying to finish some electrical stuff up. We replaced the alternator on that and it sucked, two of us worked on it for around eight hours total. Evidently the person designing the car needs to eat a lot more eggs, they must have had a vegan design it. It is an 03, we broke four bolts and just about every plastic clip needed to be replaced. We also fixed a half dozen little things when we did it and used a whole can of engine bright to get oil off the engine and all the parts..

I did this from memory, I studied a lot of the meds that block choline, I did post a list somewhere of those entry level meds doctors prescribe. Even water pills block choline. So do many heart meds and lots of meds used for anxiety and antidepressants. If you block choline, you can eat a lot and the choline will not work.

a reply to: CJCrawley



Dr. Derbyshire is an advisor on the Meat Advisor Panel.

And yes, you can get choline from plants. This is a industry funded study full of BS to promote a pro-meat diet.

a reply to: rickymouse

Well you can get choline from plants, but are there veggies or supplements that block choline, besides meds?

Interesting that folate and b12 moderate the levels, i been taking a b vitamin supplement luckily .

I wish there was a blood-test app with an attachment so we could monitor our nutrients better . Whoever makes that will be a millionaire.

a reply to: Fallingdown

Maybe add nutrients to meat-eating brains and see that the study was funded by the meat industries to push a meat and dairy heavy diet.

The information about choline is interesting. Too bad it comes with a shilled-out scientist and a propaganda study.

inverted science, folks!

fact is, the lowest validated rates of Alzheimers in the world are in rural India, where meat is scarcely eaten. choline is abundant in both animal and plant membranes.

red meat increases alzheimers and dementia risks. no doubt, the highest rates of those are where meat, dairy, and poultry/egg markets have a stronghold on the community, including US.

a reply to: tulsi

Very interesting! I did not know that. Funny enough, this was a meat and dairy industry funded study.

I think we have to remember that the meat and dairy industry is huge in America and have much more $$reasons$$$ to put out "information" that encourages people to eat meat.

exactly.

moringa is a common leafy vegetable we grow in our California backyard and eat almost daily in spinach saute or tossed salad. just 3 oz of it contains about 500mg or around the daily RDA.

in constrast, one needs nearly a pound of beef a day to meet the RDA. cause 3 oz of steak contains only like 100mg of choline. =/

i really don't understand why the dairy/meat industry smothers all else, just like big pharma, in America. they (Monsatan) tried to pull the same thing in India, but thousands of farmers killed themselves instead.

a reply to: CJCrawley

Vegan or Normal person, you’re still gonna die.

a reply to: tulsi

I think it's really about whenever big industries are allowed to get their claws in and minipulate consumer opinion and laws. America is known for that, but alot of other countries have it worse. Like countries where tobbaco is considered healthy, kids smoke, and Marlboro ads are everywhere.

A bit off topic, but i think it relates to OP's industry-funded article and how easily it minipulated a lot of opinions online because the meat-dairy industries are able to buy out the integrity of scientists and doctors. Just like big tobacco did.

originally posted by: blueman12
a reply to: rickymouse

Well you can get choline from plants, but are there veggies or supplements that block choline, besides meds?

Interesting that folate and b12 moderate the levels, i been taking a b vitamin supplement luckily

.

I wish there was a blood-test app with an attachment so we could monitor our nutrients better

. Whoever makes that will be a millionaire.

There is very little in plants, and usually only in the seed or germ. Stuff like soy protein isolate contains pretty good amounts, but eating four ounces of it to get the same amount of choline as a four ounce burger is not reasonable. Soy is not good for anyone, they BSed people into believing it is a good superfood. It has some of the worst negative effects of any foods. It can cause all sorts of problems that take away energy from us and it has some bad lectin effects.

a reply to: rickymouse

Nonsense.

nutritiondata.self.com...

Plenty of veggies high in choline. The only BS is the multi-billion dollar meat and dairy industries that constantly put out these industry funded studies such as this one by OP.

Soy is so terrible, yet some of the longest living people on earth eat fermented soy..

easyhealthoptions.com...

Not to mention, vegans don't just eat soy! And doesn't protein isolate contain the least varied nutrients and is the most processed version of soy??

a reply to: tulsi

The people in rural India use dandelion greens in cooking, which has choline. Also the USDA states that cooking does not destroy choline, so I believe that may be one reason why the Alzheimer's rate is low in rural India. As well, I am sure, they forage for many other types of wild edibles.

What researchers found were several edible weeds that rivaled the nutrition of kale. They harvested chickweed, dandelion, dock, mallow and nasturtium, and each of the wild edibles had more "dietary fibre, protein, vitamin A, sodium, calcium, iron and vitamin K, and provided more energy" than kale. (Kale did win out when it came to vitamin C.)

www.mnn.com...

When I was a vegan for a period of two years, my favourite and tastiest dish to prepare was garbage soup. I would use all the unwanted parts of veggies, such as potato skins, carrot tops...you get the picture. Did you know that one potato skin contains more nutrients than the rest of the potato and also contains choline.

Potato skins contain a compound called choline, which is the building block of lecithin, a part of cell walls, plasma and lipoproteins. Your brain and nervous system require choline to regulate your mood, memory and muscle control, among other functions.

The American diet does not provide an adequate amount of choline for most people, according to the NIH. One potato skin contains 18 milligrams of choline that contributes to the recommended daily amount of between 425 and 550 milligrams for adults, depending on age and gender.

www.livestrong.com...