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Eggs Got a Bad Wrap!
Did you happen to see the article “Eggs: Are they good or bad for my cholesterol?” on this week’s health section of msn.com? It states: “Eggs are high in cholesterol, and a diet high in cholesterol can contribute to elevated blood cholesterol levels.” This theory has been bantered back and forth for decades. So what’s the truth? A study in the Journal of Clinical Chemistry was conducted by Dr. Howard Elliot in the late 1970s that showed an interesting theory that eggs not only are not bad for your cardio health but may actually be beneficial.
The study showed cholesterol in the yolks of eggs stimulated ApoE genotype, a genetic component that actually protects against cardiovascular disease, CVD. When the American Heart Association did studies on the effects of cholesterol and egg consumption with a controlled group, evidence of serum cholesterol was indeed elevated, however, they stopped the study too soon. Elliot’s study showed that the egg cholesterol pulled bad cholesterol off the arterial wall and dumped it into the blood. Therefore, showing an elevation in serum blood, temporarily, but if they had continued monitoring the group it would have shown that with proper bowel function the body would have eliminated the excess fats, and actually lowered cholesterol.
If you’re still not convinced the following is a quote from a more recent article entitled: Types of Dietary Fat and Risk of Coronary Heart Disease: A Critical Review, from the Journal of the American College of Nutrition.133
“Surprisingly, there is little direct evidence linking higher egg consumption and increased risk of CHD. In the Framingham study, Dawber and colleagues 134 found no significant association between egg consumption and incidence of CHD despite a wide range of egg intake. In an earlier analysis of the Seventh-Day Adventists study 135, higher egg consumption appeared to be associated with increased risk of fatal CHD, but this association was not present in a more recent analysis with a longer follow-up 136. In a case-control study conducted in Italy137, the frequency of egg consumption was not significantly associated with risk of CHD in women. In a detailed analysis of egg consumption and incidence of CHD among 117,933 apparently healthy subjects in the Nurses’ Health Study and Health Professionals’ Follow-up Study, Hu and colleagues 138 found no evidence of an overall positive association between egg consumption and risk of CHD in either men or women. The relative risks (RRs) of CHD across categories of intake (<1/week, 1/wk, 2–4/week, 5–6/week,>=1/day) were 1.0, 1.06, 1.12, 0.90, and 1.08 (p for trend=0.75) in men and 1.0, 0.82, 0.99, 0.95, and 0.82 (p for trend=0.95) in women.
The null association between egg consumption and risk of CHD observed in these studies may be somewhat surprising, considering the widespread belief that eggs are a major cause of heart disease. One egg contains about 200 mg cholesterol, but also appreciable amounts of protein, unsaturated fats, folate, B vitamins and minerals. It is conceivable that the small adverse effect caused by cholesterol is counterbalanced by potential beneficial effects of other nutrients.”
In order to ensure that you are reducing your risk of CHD while enjoying the benefits of “God’s Perfect Food”, be sure that you are consuming at least 25 to 30 grams of fiber a day and have good bowel function. A safe rule is the number of bowel movements you have in a day may equal or exceed the number eggs you consume in a day.
Radhia Gleis MEd, CCN
References:
[133] Frank B. Hu, MD, PhD, JoAnn E. Manson, MD, DrPh and Walter C. Willett, MD, DrPh
Types of Dietary Fat and Risk of Coronary Heart Disease: A Critical Review, Journal of the American College of Nutrition, Vol. 20, No. 1, 5-19 (2001)
Published by the American College of Nutrition Dawber TR, Nickerson RJ, Brand FN, Pool J: Eggs, serum cholesterol, and coronary heart disease. Am J Clin Nutr 36: 617–625, 1982.[Abstract]
[134] Dawber TR, Nickerson RJ, Brand FN, Pool J: Eggs, serum cholesterol, and coronary heart disease. Am J Clin Nutr 36: 617–625, 1982.[Abstract]
[135] Snowdon DA, Phillips RL, Fraser GE: Meat consumption and fatal ischemic heart disease. Prev Med 13: 490–500, 1984.[Medline]
[136] Fraser GE: Diet and coronary heart disease: beyond dietary fats and low-density-lipoprotein cholesterol. Am J Clin Nutr 59 (Suppl): 1117S–1123S, 1994.[Abstract]
[137] Gramenzi A, Gentile A, Fasoli M, Negri E, Parazzini F, La Vecchia C: Association between certain foods and risk of acute myocardial infarction in women. BMJ 300: 771–773, 1990.[Medline]
[138] Hu FB, Stampfer MJ, Rimm EB, Manson JE, Ascherio A, Colditz GA, Rosner BA, Spiegelman D, Speizer FE, Sacks FM, Hennekens CH, Willett WC: A prospective study of egg consumption and risk of cardiovascular disease in men and women. JAMA 281: 1387–1394,
COMMENT:
i’ve never seen a white organic open range egg only brown. have you?
REPLY:
If you think about it, originally all eggs where organic before commercialization, whether they were brown or white. There is no nutritional difference between a white or brown egg, the egg is that color because the chicken is that color. I lived on a ranch with white chickens, brown chickens and black and white striped french hens. They each laid eggs the color of the chicken except the black and white french hen, she laid a blue egg. All of the chickens where naturally feed “organic”, and free range. Now the french hen happened to be a high bred that was actually lower in cholesterol, but that was because of the breed not the color.
