The “Choline Vegan Crisis”: A Pseudo-Event Ignited By The Media and an Author With Meat and Dairy Support
There are dozens of headlines in the media this week that are scary! The “Choline Crisis “ may be upon us and we are unaware, at least in the UK. Prior to the publication this week of an opinion piece by Emma Derbyshire, Ph.D. in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) Nutrition, Prevention and Health, there was no impending choline crisis recognized. Derbyshire did not publish any original research on choline and health. The publication was a hypothesis about the role of choline in health and the potential risk of the trend towards more plant-based diets. The headlines did not point out that her work was her opinion and lacked any new data. Yet the headlines read:
1) Vegan diets ‘risk insufficient intake’ of nutrient critical for brain health
2) Meat-free diet ‘lacks vital nutrient for healthy brain’
3) Plant-based diets risk ‘dumbing down’ the next generation, nutritionist warns
4) Could we be overlooking a potential choline crisis in the United Kingdom?
Even the British Medical Journal joined in the hype with a newsroom headline that read:
