Is an egg a day, ok?
May 27, 2010 | 12:10 pm
#1
Original Poster
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Is an egg a day, ok?
Egg is one of my favorite breakfast. I'm having omellete, fried egg, and boiled egg in every breakfast for the past 2 years. Someone told me recently that eggs are high in cholesterol, so I did a cholesterol test and everything appeared normal. I'm still not 100% sure if I should continue with my egg a day so I'm just wondering if anyone here has any advice regarding this?
May 27, 2010 | 12:24 pm
#2
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I've been eating an average of 2 eggs every day for 33 years and my cholesterol levels are excellent. Eggs are possibly my single favorite food item. I can't think of anything else I could eat every single day and not get tired of it.
May 27, 2010 | 1:27 pm
#5
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You're probably fine. Dietary cholesterol doesn't have that much of an impact on your blood cholesterol anyway....at least not as much as saturated and trans fats.
May 28, 2010 | 12:42 am
#6
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Eggs can be a vector for some other unhealthy items: salt, dairy fat (omelets), and grease/oil (fried eggs). Depending on how you choose to cook and serve eggs, you can have a lot of variation in the associated health effects. Think of eggs along a health continuum from the mostly harmless hard-boiled egg white (no salt!) to the fattening Eggs Benedict.
May 28, 2010 | 6:41 am
#7
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May 28, 2010 | 3:06 pm
#8
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May 28, 2010 | 8:10 pm
#9
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Low cholestrol (and high Omega-3) eggs are available in many countries and those are healthier. Better feed is used for the chickens in order to change the composition of the egg. Cost more but worth it if you are concerned.
May 28, 2010 | 9:59 pm
#10
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Originally Posted by slawecki
really? then why are people put on "low cholesterol" diets?
May 29, 2010 | 1:00 am
#11
Join Date: Jun 2007
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Eggs can be a vector for some other unhealthy items: salt, dairy fat (omelets), and grease/oil (fried eggs). Depending on how you choose to cook and serve eggs, you can have a lot of variation in the associated health effects. Think of eggs along a health continuum from the mostly harmless hard-boiled egg white (no salt!) to the fattening Eggs Benedict.
As for cholesterol, LDL (low density lipoprotein) is bad for you, but HDL (high density lipoprotein) is actually good for you and actually helps get rid of the LDL.
May 29, 2010 | 8:53 pm
#12
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My breakfast is usually 1 whole egg and 2 egg whites scrambled, cooked with a very small amount of oil, and served on toast. High in protein; low in fat. It keeps me going till lunch very easily.
May 29, 2010 | 11:18 pm
#13
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That is what I have been doing for the last decade. Body for Life for the last decade allowed you to eat a yolk/day with your egg whites, but I gave away the book years ago when it was hot. Daily, I consume 3 whites and 1 yolk or 4/2 ratio.
May 30, 2010 | 5:05 am
#15
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The stigma concerning cholesterol has been fairly overblown or the data misinterpreted over the last few decades. Cholesterol is an essential and vital part of any diet because cholesterol is essential for the body (without it we are dead); what is important is the kinds of cholesterol one consumes, the source of the cholesterol and the overall diet. A breakfast of omelet filled with cheese alongside heaps of bacon, sausages and beans plus a "healthy" shower of salt will not do your health any favours, but not only because of the egg yolks. A boiled egg over whole-wheat bread is another matter entirely.
Furthermore, the overall health should also be considered. Studies have shown eating too many eggs has been associated with heart problems in type 2 diabetics and older males predisposed to cardiovascular problems (either due to obesity/overweight or familial history).
Abstract from an academic review done by the University of Manitoba:
From the abbreviated abstract of another academic review from the University of Tennessee:
Furthermore, the overall health should also be considered. Studies have shown eating too many eggs has been associated with heart problems in type 2 diabetics and older males predisposed to cardiovascular problems (either due to obesity/overweight or familial history).
Abstract from an academic review done by the University of Manitoba:
Originally Posted by International Journal of Clinical Practice
For many years, both the medical community and the general public have incorrectly associated eggs with high serum cholesterol and being deleterious to health, even though cholesterol is an essential component of cells and organisms. It is now acknowledged that the original studies purporting to show a linear relation between cholesterol intake and coronary heart disease (CHD) may have contained fundamental study design flaws, including conflated cholesterol and saturated fat consumption rates and inaccurately assessed actual dietary intake of fats by study subjects. Newer and more accurate trials, such as that conducted by Frank B. Hu of the Harvard School of Public Health (1999), have shown that consumption of up to seven eggs per week is harmonious with a healthful diet, except in male patients with diabetes for whom an association in higher egg intake and CHD was shown. The degree to which serum cholesterol is increased by dietary cholesterol depends upon whether the individual's cholesterol synthesis is stimulated or down-regulated by such increased intake, and the extent to which each of these phenomena occurs varies from person to person. Several recent studies have shed additional light on the specific interplay between dietary cholesterol and cardiovascular health risk. It is evident that the dynamics of cholesterol homeostasis, and of development of CHD, are extremely complex and multifactorial. In summary, the earlier purported adverse relationship between dietary cholesterol and heart disease risk was likely largely over-exaggerated.
Originally Posted by Journal of the American College of Nutrition
... Several studies have examined egg intake and its relationship with coronary outcomes. All but one failed to consider the role of other potentially confounding dietary factors. When dietary confounders were considered, no association was seen between egg consumption at levels up to 1 + egg per day and the risk of coronary heart disease in non-diabetic men and women.