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Sigma Nutrition Radio

#560: Neurodiversity & Nutrition: Choline, ADHD, Dyslexia, and Beyond – Emma Derbyshire, PhD

Sigma Nutrition Radio

Danny Lennon

Nutrition, Health & Fitness

4.8 • 633 Ratings

🗓️ 22 April 2025

⏱️ 46 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Nutrition is increasingly being considered as a modifiable factor that may influence neurodevelopmental outcomes. While severe deficiencies in certain nutrients are known to have dramatic effects, there is growing interest in the potential impact of more subtle insufficiencies — particularly during critical windows such as pregnancy, infancy, and early childhood.

In conditions like ADHD, dyslexia, and autism spectrum condition (ASC), questions have been raised around whether specific nutrients may play a role in cognitive performance, attention, or learning.

  • Could low choline intake be a contributing factor to altered brain function?
  • Are individuals with neurodevelopmental conditions more likely to have different nutrient needs or metabolic profiles?
  • And how might practical dietary strategies fit into a broader management approach?

In this episode, Dr. Emma Derbyshire discusses the evidence on choline and other brain-related nutrients in the context of neurodiversity.

Timestamps

  • [02:02] Guest background
  • [05:38] Choline: what it is and why it matters
  • [07:26] Research challenges: measuring choline and study design issues
  • [10:49] Maternal intake: choline's role in fetal brain development
  • [14:24] Choline & neurodevelopmental disorders (ADHD, ASC, dyslexia)
  • [17:14] The choline gap: intake vs. requirements
  • [23:05] Supplementation: adequacy vs. excess and safety concerns
  • [25:05] Food sources: choline in the diet & intake planning
  • [30:14] Nutrition as a tool in ADHD and dyslexia management
  • [38:45] Other key nutrients (omega-3s, iron, iodine, magnesium, water)

Related Resources

Transcript

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0:00.0

Hello and welcome to Sigma Nutrition Radio.

0:02.9

This is episode 560 of the podcast.

0:06.8

My name is Danny Lennon.

0:08.2

You are very welcome to the show.

0:10.9

And today we're gonna be digging into a topic

0:13.9

that is very interesting to consider.

0:16.1

We're currently in a situation where nutrition generally,

0:19.6

as well as specific nutrients, have been considered

0:23.1

a potential modifiable factor that can influence aspects of neurodevelopment and then some

0:28.2

of the outcomes of that.

0:30.4

And in other areas related to neurodevelopment, we see clear evidence where severe deficiencies

0:35.9

of certain nutrients can have very dramatic effects.

0:38.6

On the podcast before, we've discussed context around folate as an example and potential implications

0:43.8

of that. But now some of this is starting to be looked at in areas that would fall under the

0:49.6

umbrella term of neurodiversity. So whether that specific work looking at conditions like ADHD,

0:56.0

dyslexia, autism spectrum condition, there's been various interest in the field to see, is there

1:02.7

a potential role of nutrients or more specifically nutrient status that could be playing a role

1:08.4

here in not only the neurodevelopment phase, but then beyond that

1:12.4

in being able to improve certain aspects like cognitive performance, processing speed, attention,

1:19.0

or learning.

1:20.7

And we're going to be looking at a few of these, and in particular, one nutrient that has

1:25.6

had a keen interest is coline.

...

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