How Our Gut Bacteria Can Use Eggs to Accelerate Cancer

The reason egg consumption is associated with elevated cancer risk may be the TMAO, considered the “smoking gun” of microbiome-disease interactions.

New subscribers to our e-newsletter always receive a free gift. Get yours here:

What did the egg industry do in response to this information? Distort the scientific record of course! See Egg Industry Response to Choline and TMAO ( ).

This is not the first time the egg industry has been caught in the act. See, for example:
• Who Says Eggs Aren’t Healthy or Safe? ( )
• Does Cholesterol Size Matter? ( )
• How the Egg Board Designs Misleading Studies ( )
• Debunking Egg Industry Myths ( )
• Eggs and Cholesterol: Patently False and Misleading Claims ( )

For background on TMAO see my original coverage in Carnitine, Choline, Cancer, and Cholesterol: The TMAO Connection ( ).

This is all part of the microbiome revolution in medicine, the underappreciated role our gut flora play in our health. For more, see:
• Stool pH and Colon Cancer ( )
• Bowel Wars: Hydrogen Sulfide vs. Butyrate ( )
• Putrefying Protein & “Toxifying” Enzymes ( )
• Microbiome: The Inside Story ( )
• Prebiotics: Tending our Inner Garden ( )
• What’s your Gut Microbiome Enterotype? ( )
• How to Change your Enterotype ( )
• Paleopoo: What We Can Learn from Fossilized Feces ( )
• Gut Dysbiosis: Starving Our Microbial Self ( )
• Egg Industry Response to Choline & TMAO ( )
• Is Obesity Infectious? ( )
• How to Develop a Healthy Gut Ecosystem ( )
• How to Become a Fecal Transplant Super Donor ( )

Have a question about this video? Leave it in the comment section at and someone on the NutritionFacts.org team will try to answer it.
UPDATE: We are currently testing the removal of the comment section across all video pages on the NutritionFacts.org website until October, and it will either be reinstated thereafter or removed permanently based on the results. Please feel free to continue your discussions by commenting on our YouTube channel and social media accounts, where we will have Health Support volunteers available to address questions.

Want to get a list of links to all the scientific sources used in this video? Click on Sources Cited at . You’ll also find a transcript and acknowledgements for the video, my blog and speaking tour schedule, and an easy way to search (by translated language even) through our videos spanning more than 2,000 health topics.

If you’d rather watch these videos on YouTube, subscribe to my YouTube Channel here:

Thanks for watching. I hope you’ll join in the evidence-based nutrition revolution!
-Michael Greger, MD FACLM

Image credit: Praveen via pixabay. Image has been modified.

• Subscribe:
• Donate:
• Podcast :
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/NutritionFacts.org
• Twitter: www.twitter.com/nutrition_facts
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/nutrition_facts_org
• Books:
• Shop:

Leroy Johnson
 

  • Clownish-Gambino says:

    Dr Greger are there any peer reviewed studies on Chlorine from my daily swim in the pool on the colony of healthy gut bacteria? I love to swim but was knocked swideways when someone passed this question to me

  • Jigglypoop97 says:

    Can you do a video on populations of people who do not have acne(there are studies on them in relation to ace), like some indigenous islanders, and share why that might be?

    • big boi says:

      Jigglypoop97 no dairy consumption on these islanders. he has videos about acne. and there are experiments showing high fat consumption literally LITERALLY turn your blood vessels into sludge fat mess and your sebaceous glands try to rid yourself of the excess fat causing acne

    • Jigglypoop97 says:

      Yeah, I have been vegan for about a year now. And as far as fat goes, do you think I should eliminate all overt sources of fat for a while? If I do, I plan on still eating 1 tbsp of Flax a day. Do you think it would be a good idea to aim for about 20 grams of fat in a roughly 2000 cal diet?

    • Raven says:

      Maybe Jigglypoop97 only way to find out is to try it. Dr. MacDougall Recommends this, check out his videos.

    • Bozhidar says:

      I m ine of them. Always good skin. Cold water morning routine and not so much meat diet. I m more into vegetables

    • Bozhidar says:

      @Jigglypoop97 vegan diet itself isnt best choice related to acne. Everybody is different and you must find cure for yourself but yep saturated fats possibly increase chance for acne. Some people who eat a lot of meat and milk do not have acne so you have to search for your own organism what is good and what not

  • Second Act says:

    In January I got sick and went on documentary watching binge. That is how i found Dr. Greger and ended up reading his free “The Bird Flu Book.” I’ve struggled in the past to become vegetarian, but before I was even done reading the book I became a Vegan.

    How can the deplorable treatment of the animals possibly create good food, but beyond that why did I believe it was good at all? I know– the government mandated nutrition classes for twelve years, ugh the eggs I ate. I wish I would have found Nutrition Facts sooner. I just hope I can un-brainwash my kids, so I can at least get them to look at the evidence.

    Since becoming vegan I’ve lost more than thirty pounds and am in the process of losing around fifty more. I finally have removed the noise from my diet and am finding greater health. I just hope I can reverse all the past damage.

    Thank you Dr. Greger for all you do!!!!

  • Brioche 🍞 says:

    I took nutrition this semester and it was soo interesting. Can you imagine if the Dr was a nutrition teacher. 😱I feel like you would always have the most riveting discussions in class

    • Reviews says:

      Dr’s learn little on nutrition. Nutritionists are brainwashed and push the food guide which is funded by the quacks of heart and stroke foundation that push grains, which are the culprits. The food guide is a recipe for diabetes, obesity and heart disease. Funny USA is leading the entire world in those departments.

    • Тамара Белка says:

      if he were you will finish the course with even less real knowledge about nutrition that you got.

    • Reviews says:

      @Тамара Белка . I have no clue what you meant.

  • Hug a Tree says:

    I love Dr Greger, his approach and delivery are dead on. Many thanks Dr Greger, you are the best!

  • Kaylyn Pacific says:

    I love his talks on the microbiome!!!!

  • Henry Reed says:

    Love this channel, godsend to nutrition.

  • Jessica says:

    amazing findings! please do a video on preventing and reversing stomach cancer. A close friend of mine father has been suffering for a couple years now and an amazing christian apologist Dr. Nabeel Qureshi is fighting it as well. please help us find some answers Doc!

    • Daniel Hernandez says:

      Soffa Fedotova ????

    • RandomHuTaoSimp says:

      Not sure what its worth since u posted 5 years ago, but ask them to try fasting with a grass finished beef only diet. That should reverse cancer in alot of cases. Keep the sugar/carbs to near 0 as possible. Fat high and protein around moderate (Around 110-140 grams).

  • Asy Metrix says:

    The main thing that is missing is that everyone reacts differently depending on how much of the offending bacteria is in each persons gut. Remove the bacteria – remove the reaction that makes Trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO) in the gut.

  • Вера Трескина says:

    Все понятно,большое спасибо

  • Milena Petrovic says:

    Свиђа ми се, има јако поучних природних лекова👍

  • Галина Бабичева says:

    Очень аппетитно,вкустно и хочется скорее себе приготовить, спасибо за советы!

  • Юрий Абросимов says:

    Валерий , благодарю Вас за такое подробное ,, учебное методичное разжевывание ‘ техники бега . Очень наглядно выглядела собака 🦮;)

  • Huỳnh Diệu Nhân says:

    Nếu có thể thêm phần tiếng Việt nữa thì thật tiện ích cho người Việt Nam.Cám ơn bác sỹ.

  • Baka Dudina kuhinja says:

    Uvek lajk,živa duša želi sve,genetika je čuda,i malo posta nije na odmet,bravo, baka Dudina kuhinj a ❤️

  • Mysteroo says:

    I have a feeling that in places like Japan, levels are still lower than the USA because despite eating far more eggs, the rest of their diet is lower in carcinogens – so there’s less cancer to be accelerated. Plus – it likely depends on how those eggs are made; i.e. the variety of oil

  • Kristen Taylor says:

    Thank you again for clearing up the polluted theories of eggs.

  • Sun and Moon Serendipity says:

    Is what we breathe an environmental exposure as well? What role does our microbiome play in respiration?

  • Beth Starkweather says:

    I have understood that choline is beneficial for brain development and potentially for brain health. Is this true?

  • andrew pawley says:

    I love this channel!

  • >