Are eggs bad for your health again?

A new study says eating three eggs a week is dangerous. Yet other experts argue the opposite.

Eating an egg a day might help to prevent type 2 diabetes.

Once demonised, eggs have transformed their reputation in recent years. Last month, though, a study involving nearly 30,000 people published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, found eating three of four eggs a week increases the chance of dying from a heart attack or stroke. It also found people who ate an average of two eggs a day had a 27 per cent higher risk of a heart attack or other cardiovascular episodes.

“The take-home message is real­ly about cholesterol, which happens to be high in eggs and specifically yolks,” says Norrina Allen, one of the authors and an associate professor of preventive medicine at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago.

“As part of a healthy diet, people need to consume lower amounts of cholesterol. People who consume less cholesterol have a lower risk of heart disease.”

Egg yolks are indeed one of the richest sources of dietary cholesterol among commonly consumed foods: the yolk of one large egg provides 186mg of dietary cholesterol. And it is true too much cholesterol in the bloodstream accumulates on artery walls and raises the risk of heart attacks and strokes. It’s for these reasons that for decades eggs were labelled bad for our hearts.

However, Helen Bond, a dietitian for the British Dietetic Association, says the overwhelming scientific consensus is the cholesterol in eggs has little effect on our heart health.

“It has been firmly established it is not dietary cholesterol that causes blood cholesterol levels to rise but eating a lot of foods high in saturated fats; not eggs but butter, fatty meat products and cheese,” says Bond, who likes to fry eggs “guilt-free” on the top of her AGA cooker so she doesn’t need to use any fat.

The US study has limitations, she says. “It doesn’t show cause and effect, that eggs are the direct reason for heart problems. The study doesn’t look at how the eggs people ate were prepared, whether people were cooking them with lots of butter and cream, or whether the egg eaters who suffered heart disease had other unhealthy habits, like smoking.”

Bond is concerned it may frighten people into “avoiding eggs when they have been given the green light as a healthy food”.

But just how good for us are they really?

What’s in an egg?

Overall, eggs are low in carbs and fat but high in protein, with 6.4g per medium egg (about 13 per cent of an adult’s daily requirement), 4g of which is in the white.

“They are a nutrient-packed bullet shot of goodness. Vitamins and minerals are packed into that little oval shape,” Bond says.

The yolk is more nutrient-dense and eggs provide a multi­vitamin-like array of magnesium, iron, selenium and B vitamins. They “are among the better dietary sources of vitamin D” and contain choline, a compound used to make cell membranes and improve digestion, and phosphorus, which is important for healthy bones and teeth.

“Eggs are one of the rare food sources that contain lutein, a carotenoid with anti-inflammatory properties that is very important for eye health and is linked to the prevention of age-related macular degeneration, the leading cause of blindness. And they contain high levels of cysteine, an amino acid that is important for breaking down acetaldehyde, the toxic compound produced when alcohol is consumed and is responsible for many hangover symptoms.

“Eating eggs is the best thing to do after a heavy night out.”

You can eat as many as you like

Last year University of Sydney nutrition scientists reported in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition that putting people on a high-egg diet (12 eggs a week) or a low-egg diet (less than two a week) made no difference to their cardiovascular risk markers. Even people with type 2 diabetes suffered no adverse effects in terms of inflammation and glucose levels from eating a diet high in eggs.

“A lot of people are still confused about the amount of eggs that are healthy,” says Azmina Govindji, a British Dietetic Association dietitian. “But eggs do not need to be rationed.”

Eggs can be healthy for your heart

An egg contains about a teaspoon of fat but only about a quarter of it is saturated fat — the type linked to heart disease in high amounts — and many studies have indic­ated that egg consumption can improve rather than damage your heart health.

Last year a study of almost a half-million people published in the journal Heart found daily egg consumption was associated with a 26 per cent lower risk of haemorrhagic stroke, a 28 per cent lower risk of stroke death and an 18 per cent lower risk of death from cardiovascular disease overall.

People who said they ate an average of five eggs a week also had a 12 per cent lower risk of heart disease than those who said they rarely ate eggs.

“What we do know is eggs do not seem to increase the risks of developing heart disease And there is some evidence linking egg intake with reduced risks,” Gov­indji says.

They are a great post-workout snack

Matt Cole, a sport and exercise nutri­tionist at Britain’s Birmingham City University, says athletes used to eat only egg whites, mainly because they “had concerns about increased consumption of fat in the yolk”, but now the trend is to consume the whole thing.

He says that scrambled eggs made with whole milk “is a perfect recovery meal after a workout”.

Michael Burdon, a consultant in exercise and musculoskeletal medicine at Pure Sports Medicine, says eggs are “great for muscle repair and growth” and more effective in aiding recovery than many commercial protein balls and shakes.

In 2017 researchers at the University of Illinois showed how the post-workout muscle-building response in people who ate whole eggs after a weight-training session was 40 per cent greater than in those who ate the same amount of protein from just egg whites.

“I recommend eggs to clients for recovery after exercise,” says Anita Bean, a sports ­nutritionist.

“They contain high concentrations of all nine essential amino acids, including the amino acid leucine, an important trigger for stimulating muscle building.”

Eating an egg a day may help to prevent type 2 diabetes

This is because the many bioactive compounds they contain have beneficial effects on metabolic health. That was the conclusion reached by scientists at the University of Eastern Finland who published a study in the journal Molecular Nutrition and Food Research in December last year.

Blood samples of middle-aged men who regularly ate eggs correlated with the blood profiles of men who avoided type 2 diabetes.

There may be gender differ­ences, says Govindji. A study published in Nutrition Research and Practice found consumption appeared to help reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes only in men.

“Eggs are a great choice when you need to control your blood sugar levels,” Bond says. “And that is an important factor in preventing type 2 diabetes.”

You can even eat the shell

Bond says: “It’s a trend to watch for the future — egg shell could be a new addition for smoothies and protein shakes.”

The shell is a rich source of minerals and other useful bone-strengthening elements such as strontium and fluorine. A 2013 study in the International Journal of Food Science and Nutrition showed the shell of a chicken egg contains about 2g of calcium, roughly twice the average daily adult requirement.

The idea is to grind the shell into a powder — you can do it at home — and add it to flour for making bread or pasta. It doesn’t taste of much and just makes the texture a little more grainy.

Have you tried the ‘egg diet’?

Various versions of this creep on to my social media feed and I can’t imagine a less appealing way to lose weight.

Yet eggs can assist weight loss. In 2017 researchers from the University of Connecticut compared breakfast of porridge or two eggs and found eggs were better at leaving people satiated.

“Protein from eggs can limit appetite by reducing levels of ghrelin, a hunger hormone produced by our stomach and pancreas,” Bond says.

“It also stimulates our metabolism, causing us to burn calories and give off heat during digestion, making eggs great for dieters.”

The Times