Egg consumption inversely correlated with Alzheimer's • Hacker News Board

Re: Egg consumption inversely correlated with Alzheimer's

#41

Post by sph » Sun, Jul 05, 2026, 5:46 AM UTC

To the egg lovers among us: what percentage of the mass you ingest over the lifetime do you think eggs total up to? Shall we say 5%?

Suppose the remaining 95% is healthy vegetables, or a ludicrous amount of junk food. Do you think you can attribute any effect to eggs over the course of a lifetime?

Of course not. However that is how dietary research works, and together with the blatant conflict of interest in this case, still call themselves a science whose findings get readily published in social media and newspapers.

If I were king of this place, the first thing I would do would be to ban papers on nutrition, and nothing of value would be lost.

Re: Egg consumption inversely correlated with Alzheimer's

#42

Post by s1artibartfast » Sun, Jul 05, 2026, 6:09 AM UTC

adjejmxbdjdn wrote: post #10

> In addition, to evaluate potential bias because of unmeasured systematic differences between consumers and nonconsumers, we conducted a sensitivity analysis excluding vegans. Vegans comprised a substantial portion of the zero egg consumption group, which could disproportionately influence this group, and they often differ in other lifestyle or health-related characteristics. So they eliminated vegans from the sensi…

They said it held up with and without vegans, getting the same result.

> Results from the sensitivity analysis excluding vegans remained very consistent with the primary findings (Table 3). The HR for consuming eggs 5 or more times/wk, compared with never/rare consumption, was 0.73 (0.60, 0.89).

Re: Egg consumption inversely correlated with Alzheimer's

#43

Post by ChiMan » Sun, Jul 05, 2026, 6:12 AM UTC

solumunus wrote: post #39

ChiMan wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except that three saturated-fat-laden strips of bacon for breakfast prevents the need for lunch, leaving my daily caloric intake lower than if I had eaten a bagel for breakfast and been hungry at lunch. The longer period between meals--snack-free--afforded by the bacon also means that post-meal insulin (the energy-storing hormone) has a chance to drop off, leaving glucagon (the energy-burning hormone) a path for libe…

Bacon - the ultimate diet food.

I stopped the mid-morning bacon a few years ago and have put on 15 pounds since. A lot of variables, blah, blah, blah. I know. But still. No bacon, fewer eggs, and 15 pounds heavier, despite 10 - 20 more miles per week of running. Just sayin'.

Re: Egg consumption inversely correlated with Alzheimer's

#44

Post by s1artibartfast » Sun, Jul 05, 2026, 6:18 AM UTC

hombre_fatal wrote: post #11

thayne wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There could be an interaction with the diet though. For example, what if the nutrient in eggs that prevents Alzheimer's is something that also occurs in meat? Also, it seems likely that among this population many of those who don't or rarely consume eggs are vegan or almost vegan, so it might be more accurate to say that veganism is correlated with Alzheimer's.

1. They ran a sensitivity analysis that removed vegans yet still got the same result, so the egg gradient is still there among non-vegans. 2. They modeled swapping eggs for nuts/seeds/legumes and saw the same risk reduction. (Table 4)

>2. They modeled swapping eggs for nuts/seeds/legumes and saw the same risk reduction. (Table 4)

I think the table isnt clear, but I think the claim for 2 is that nuts(ect) did not show the same reduction - the egg finding held up.

> Substituting eggs for nuts/seeds or legumes in the diet was associated with a similarly reduced risk of Alzheimer’s disease.

Re: Egg consumption inversely correlated with Alzheimer's

#45

Post by aziaziazi » Sun, Jul 05, 2026, 6:24 AM UTC

pinkmuffinere wrote: post #18

I’m copying this comment from discussion two months ago > Caveat: > > Funding [...] The analyses in this study were supported by an investigator-initiated grant from the American Egg Board. [...]

Also, buried in the article:

> Substituting eggs for nuts/seeds or legumes in the diet was associated with a similarly reduced risk of Alzheimer’s disease.

Re: Egg consumption inversely correlated with Alzheimer's

#46

Post by gnubison » Sun, Jul 05, 2026, 6:27 AM UTC

fakedang wrote: post #40

phlakaton wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

None of the billionaires got that way by throwing money at egg studies. Bold to think they'd just start doing it now. Insurance companies don't fund medical research AFAIK? But if they did, it would be coming out of your premiums. The US Government is not a reliable source of research or funding these days. Universities are generally looking for subjects that will further their prestige and expand the frontiers as th…

The egg billionaires did.

Big Egg

Re: Egg consumption inversely correlated with Alzheimer's

#47

Post by thin_carapace » Sun, Jul 05, 2026, 8:26 AM UTC

tfwnopmt wrote: post #19

recursivecaveat wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not necessarily. Looking before crossing the street is inversely correlated with getting hit by a truck. Getting trucked is inversely correlated with getting mauled by a lion (most places with wild lions are light on road traffic). Doesn't mean that looking both ways will increase your odds of becoming lion chow though.

I'm not sure what this strawman is going on about, but the cancer-alzheimer's inverse correlation is a well known phenomenon https://www.nature.com/articles/s41514-026-00442-1

alzheimers must be a byproduct of some process the body uses to fight cancer. thank you so much for sharing this article, it is the most interesting physiological discovery I've heard in a long time. next steps we need to identify whether this hypothetical anti cancer mechanism is selective or constantly active. the plaques were a dead end but not a dead end!!!

Re: Egg consumption inversely correlated with Alzheimer's

#48

Post by b3lvedere » Sun, Jul 05, 2026, 8:33 AM UTC

ChiMan wrote: post #20

Quality of this study aside, and n of 1 here, my own state of mind, clarity of thought, and sleep are all noticeably better when I'm eating 2 or 3 eggs a day, 3 to 5 days a week. (I might go 7 days, but an independent value placed on dietary variety prevents that--perhaps foolishly when I notice what I'm eating on off days instead of the eggs.) Regardless, this whole eggs-are-evil thing has probably done more to harm…

Sugar ( in all its names and molecular forms ) is evil, because of the vast amount it is in processed food products. Eggs and fat not so much. But they would be if that is the next ‘cheap molecule to make processed food cheap’.

Re: Egg consumption inversely correlated with Alzheimer's

#49

Post by seanhunter » Sun, Jul 05, 2026, 8:41 AM UTC

willis936 wrote: post #16

Why would having alzheimer's reduce people's desire to eat eggs?

They would forget where they put them.

Joking aside, (and I speak as someone who has lost 2 close members of my family to dementia), as soon as people start to experience any form of dementia, there is a sort of coping mechanism that kicks in where they stop doing “complex” things as much as they used to, because there is a huge amount of anxiety that is caused by losing short-term memory (you are constantly thrown into situations where you can’t make sense of what’s going on). So my mother-in-law for example, stopped cooking for herself long before some of the other symptoms really became apparent. She told everyone she was “bored of it”, and when cooking for a larger group she wolud constantly check and recheck the recipe. At the time it drove me crazy but then later when she was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s it all started to make sense.

Re: Egg consumption inversely correlated with Alzheimer's

#50

Post by b3lvedere » Sun, Jul 05, 2026, 8:41 AM UTC

krackers wrote: post #24

pinkmuffinere wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know you’re joking, but possible causal path here: People with Alzheimer’s lose ability to use stove -> eat simpler less involved breakfasts -> eats less eggs

You can make eggs in a microwave (critically so long as you don't do it in the shell)

Works surprisingly good indeed. Just get a bowl, stir some eggs, add seasonings of choice and pop it in. Be sure to stop the microwave on time, because the mixture expands a lot.