In response to an email stating that “the breakfast staple’s chlorine is used to synthesize acetylcholine, a neurotransmitter that increases the speed at which the brain can process sensory input and access stored information” and that “research suggests this compound can reduce memory lapses by 46% in five weeks”, the blogger’s most learned e-buddy Dr JB Lim comments as follows:
Monday, 20 May, 2013 10:10 PM
From: lim juboo
Thanks for the advice.
But I need to intervene here before more people get the wrong message.
I need to correct a very serious technical error in the bottom of this article sent to me and everybody.
It says under the title at the bottom: “Stay mentally sharp with eggs”. It then advice a breakfast containing chorine: “The breakfast staple’s chlorine”.
This is to inform all the recipients that this is chemically, nutritionally, scientifically and medically incorrect.
Chlorine is a greenish and very poisonous gas, and this element belonging to the halogen family (remember your school Form 5 simple chemistry?). This element is not present in neither choline or in eggs as an elemental gas. Eggs do contain chlorides in conjugated form as in salt, but not as a pure element.
I think what the writer was trying to advice is a different compound called ‘choline’ which I am afraid does not contain any chlorine atoms in its molecules at all. Choline contains only carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen and oxygen in its molecules (C5H14NO).
Choline belongs to the vitamin B family and this has nothing to do with the 4 halogen elements – fluorine, chlorine, bromine and iodine.
However, it is true that eggs is very rich in choline which helps tremendously in transmitting electrical and chemical messages across the network of nerve fibers in the body. This includes enhancing memory, and motor functions.
Choline has been found to affect on memory and learning power especially in the new born babies during their formative stages of brain, nervous system and muscular development.
A deficiency of this nutrient causes memory loss. Foods such as raw beef liver, eggs, cod fish, chicken, milk and brewer’s yeast are all rich in choline, whereas sunflower and soya both of which have high content of lecithin from which choline can be derived may protect against memory loss.
Hence I have special interest in infant nutrition, natural food and medicine, I would very strongly advise mothers to feed their babies with eggs, milk, fish and shredded chicken during their weaning period after 6 months of breast feeding.
Remember breast milk is the best milk for new born, never formula (cow’s) milk. There is no substitute for mother’s milk for the new born. Cow’s milk is for calves, human milk for human babies – immunologically, chemically, nutritionally, psychologically, mother-baby bondage, microbiologically, physiologically…etc, etc, etc.
Back to choline! This vitamin B analogue is the precursor (initial molecule) for the synthesis of a neurotransmitter (a substance responsible for nerve transmission) called acetylcholine, which plays a very crucial biochemical role in memory retention and neuromuscular control.
In other words, a deficiency of choline or in the B group of vitamins in the diet can seriously affect your learning power and memory especially in young children, and perhaps in the elderly against dementia.
Chlorine is an extremely aggressive and very highly active free radical in its nascent (singlet stage) that will instantly destroy all the cells, including all the neuron and memory cells in the body, let alone the irreversible damage to the DNA.
This is the same dynamics how chlorine is used to destroy bacteria in water (in water purification) which only requires just 1 part per million (1 ppm) to do the job.
This is just a short advice to share to correct that serious mistake about using chlorine for breakfast in the article sent to me and to others.
jb lim