CHAPEL HILL, N.C., Jan. 4 (UPI) -- Pregnant women may want to consider eggs for breakfast or lunch because they contain choline, which helps fetal brains develop, U.S. researchers say.
A team of University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill researchers says choline -- found in meat, nuts and eggs -- plays a critical role in helping fetal brains develop regions associated with memory.
"Our study in mice indicates that the diet of a pregnant mother, especially choline in that diet, can change the epigenetic switches that control brain development in the fetus," senior scientist Steven Zeisel says in a statement. "Understanding more about how diet modifies our genes could be very important for assuring optimal development."
Zeisel and colleagues made the discovery by feeding two groups of pregnant mice different diets during the window of time when a fetus develops its hippocampus, the part of the brain responsible for memory.
The Agricultural Research Service says "experts suggest that an adequate choline intake is 425 milligrams a day for women and 550 milligrams a day for men."
The findings are published in the Journal of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology.
