Eggs Across The Lifespan

Featured article in the Summer 2018 Issue of Nutrition Close-Up; written by Edith Mubanda, MA, RD, LDN, Vice President & Chief Operations Officer Trustlines Development Network, Inc. 

Most of the academic research done in developing countries has the unfortunate tendency of not being adopted and applied. After reading the ENC article, “Eggs for the Nutritionally Vulnerable.”¹ we at Trustlines Development Network launched a chicken and eggs project in rural Uganda. Continue reading “Raising a Village – One Egg at a Time” →

Do you have a family member with a congenital heart disease? Have you heard of someone with a cleft palate or spina bifida? I’m guessing the answer to at least one of these questions is yes. Birth defects impact 1 in every 33 babies born in the U.S. each year.¹

Continue reading “Help Prevent Birth Defects” →

Choline is hot! In 2016, the Food and Drug Administration established a Reference Daily Intake value for choline of 550 mg. Then in June of 2017, the American Medical Association (AMA) House of Delegates recommended the addition of choline to prenatal vitamins because of its essentiality in promoting cognitive development of the offspring. This was followed in August by a study that showed that more than 90% of pregnant women (as well as adults in general) do not consume recommended intakes of choline.

Now the story continues. This month, Dr. Marie Caudill and colleagues at Cornell University published evidence that infants exposed to higher levels of maternal choline (930 mg/day) during the third trimester have improved information processing speed during the first year of life, an indicator of cognition and intelligence. Similar studies have been conducted in rodents and shown that the cognitive effects of maternal exposure to choline last beyond infancy. Whether the same will be observed in humans remains to be determined. But one thing is clear: there’s much to learn about the role of choline in brain development. Hopefully this study will be a catalyst for other scientists to start unraveling the unknowns about this previously underappreciated nutrient.

Reference: Caudill MA, et al. Maternal choline supplementation during the third trimester of pregnancy improves infant information processing speed: a randomized, double-blind, controlled feeding study. FASEB J. 2018;32:2172-2180.

Featured article in the Fall 2017 Issue of Nutrition Close-Up; written by Rachel Bassler, RDN, CSSD, LDN

Most pregnant women are bombarded with health and nutrition information via handouts from their doctor, advice from friends and family, or pregnancy smartphone apps (confession: I have three). Many times, information is geared towards what foods to avoid like raw meat, fish with mercury, unpasteurized cheeses and alcohol. While this information is extremely important for the health and safety of both mother and baby, it’s also crucial to focus on foods and nutrients that are beneficial during pregnancy.

Continue reading “Foods and My Baby: Perspectives from a Pregnant Mom” →

Featured article in the September, 2017 Issue of Nutrition Research Update; written by Taylor Wallace, PhD, CFS, FACN, food and nutrition expert, faculty at George Mason University and blogger at www.drtaylorwallace.com.

Did you know that eggs provide the most choline to the U.S. diet?  Each egg yolk contains about 147 mg of choline or about one-fourth of that recommended on the food label.  Our prior research indicated that about 90% of Americans fall short of their choline intake goals. The 2015 Dietary Guidelines for Americans for this reason identified choline as an under consumed nutrient in the U.S. diet.  Building on our previous work, our recent analysis “Usual Choline Intakes Are Associated with Egg and Protein Food Consumption in the United States” showed that 92% of pregnant women and 99% of teenagers fail to meet intake recommendations for choline.  Continue reading “Choline Intakes are Driven by Egg Consumption” →