Good news for egg lovers: eating them even every day does not cause your blood tests to go “high”. As long as you don’t cheat, that is, you don’t consume them with a side of crispy slices of bacon or fried in butter. The egg in itself, therefore, is essentially harmless with respect to the cholesterol threat.
And science proves it. The latest reassuring news comes from the United States, from the congress of the American College of Cardiology, where experts from the Duke Clinical Research Institute of Durham (USA) presented egg-clearing research. It’s called Prosperity and it evaluated the consequences of a high consumption of eggs on plasma cholesterol, compared to a diet without eggs (or with a maximum of two per week), for a period of four months.
THE PATIENTS
The study used “fortified” eggs (i.e. with added vitamins D, B2, B5, B12 and minerals such as iodine and selenium and omega-3 fatty acids). The 140 study participants, all with an average age of 66 years, had cardiovascular disease or had two cardiovascular risk factors (hypertension, diabetes, overweight/obesity, hypercholesterolemia). The enrolled subjects were assigned to two groups: one could consume up to 12 eggs per week, cooked at will, while the other less than two per week.
THE INDICATIONS
The conclusions of the research are clear: after 4 months of a diet rich or, on the contrary, devoid of eggs, the levels of cholesterol in the blood were comparable between the two groups. Interesting information which, if confirmed, could also lead to reviewing the advice that doctors offer to those suffering from cardiovascular diseases or high cholesterol, i.e. limiting the consumption not only of red and processed meats, dairy products and shellfish, but also of egg. Because according to the Prosperity study, eggs can be eaten safely, even every day and in high quantities.
«Ours – admits Dr. Nina Nouhravesh, coordinator of the research – is a study on a limited number of patients, but it reassures the fact that eating eggs does not increase cholesterol levels in the blood, even in a high-risk population, such as that examined.”
The results actually don’t surprise professionals too much. A very recent review of all the studies on the topic of “consumption of eggs and cholesterol”, published by the Karolinska Institutet a few kilometers from Stockholm together with Finnish and Swedish universities, concluded that there is no certain evidence of a negative effect deriving from a reasonable consumption of eggs (up to one a day) and that eating eggs is not associated with an increased cardiovascular risk, nor mortality, nor the onset of diabetes, nor tumors.
REQUIREMENT
The conclusion of the Scandinavian authors is therefore that an egg a day is not harmful to health. And in fact it could even turn out to be healthy. Eggs are in fact an excellent source of high quality proteins, all vitamins (with the exception of C), minerals and many other beneficial bioactive components. In particular, an egg provides 60% of the daily requirement of vitamin B12, 30% of the selenium requirement, 16% of the iodine requirement and 12% of the vitamin D requirement. Cholesterol is contained only in the yolk (the red), while egg white (white) is rich in proteins.
We are talking about an excellent food to also include in a low-calorie diet, given that despite being rich in nutrients, they only provide 75 calories. And by the way they also have a reasonable cost. As regards the special item monitored in terms of cardiovascular risk, i.e. cholesterol, one yolk contains approximately 200 mg, which represents 2/3 of the daily requirement, set at 300 mg per day in the old nutritional guidelines, all however in phase of revision. Furthermore, in terms of cholesterol, an omelette is always better than buttered toast or a sandwich with sausages.
SUBJECTS
The results of many studies have shown that eating eggs every day has no consequences on plasma cholesterol levels, except perhaps in subjects who show an “exaggerated” response to dietary cholesterol. For this reason, while waiting for further scientific publications on the subject, it is best to exercise caution and limit yourself to consuming no more than one egg a day. Perhaps choosing it from those with the number “0” stamped on the shell, which means “organic breeding”, i.e. laid by hens that scratch outdoors and are fed with organic feed, without chemical additives or anything else.
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED