The truth about eggs: how many eggs are healthy and when they harm us

Eggs still have a rather bad image. This is due to numerous studies that classified eggs as a questionable food due to their high cholesterol content. As is well known, cholesterol as blood fat leads to deposits in the vessels and can thus promote heart attacks and strokes.

Are eggs healthy or harmful?

However, more recent studiesthat eggs can even reduce the risk of stroke and heart attack. Accordingly, test persons who had eaten up to five eggs per week had a ten percent lower risk of these diseases than people in whom eggs were only exceptionally on the menu.

However, before unalloyed joy about the acquittal for the breakfast egg arises: Another Investigation seems to confirm the previously bad reputation of the eggs again. The contradictory results came about, among other things, because most of the studies did not ask about the entire diet of the subjects and their movement profile. It is well known that the cholesterol level can be lowered by fruits and vegetables with plenty of fiber, as well as sporting activities.

Cholesterol levels are less dependent on food than previously thought

In addition, it is also a matter of genes whether someone breaks down blood fat quickly or, on the contrary, tends to risky deposits. Some people eat three fried eggs a day and their cholesterol levels stay within the normal range. An extreme Example: An 88-year-old regularly ate 25 eggs a day, felt healthy, had no high blood lipid levels and no trace of arteriosclerosis! The cholesterol absorption in the intestine was clearly reduced, presumably due to familial factors.

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Surely this man is an exception and not an example to emulate. Because there are other people who only occasionally eat an egg for breakfast, but who struggle with high levels of blood lipids.

Ultimately, diet doesn’t play such a big role in cholesterol levels: foods such as eggs are only responsible for 25 percent of blood fat levels, most cholesterol is made by the liver, so blood fat is produced in the body and is not supplied from outside.

You can safely eat that many eggs

Nutritionists have therefore agreed not to demonize eggs, but to rehabilitate them and even recommend them as part of a wholesome diet. Also the German Society for Nutrition has relaxed its strict rules in this regard.

For healthy people who do not have heart disease, high blood fat levels or diabetes three to four eggs a week is a guideline. In a Swedish Study even showed that up to six eggs per week do not increase the risk of heart attack and stroke. Anyone who is even more eggs for weeks may have to expect negative consequences, according to the analysis of the data.

So if there are a few more at Easter, there is no risk of a heart attack if you live egg-free again afterwards. If you want to be absolutely sure, you can have your blood lipid levels checked by a test in the doctor’s office.

Soft-boiled eggs are particularly digestible

However, you should pay attention to the preparation of the eggs: soft-boiled eggs are considered to be particularly digestible. However, if you fry fried eggs in lard, as well as bacon, the meal also provides a lot of saturated fat such as cholesterol. The meal may be heavy on the stomach and blood fat levels may actually rise higher.

On the other hand, if you fry the fried eggs in high-quality vegetable oil and, for example, spread diced tomatoes over them, you get a wholesome, vitamin-rich meal. With regard to cholesterol, it is not just the egg that matters, but the overall nutritional concept.

Nutrient miracle egg with valuable vital substances

Overall, eggs are healthier than you think. Depending on their size, they provide an average of only 70 to 90 kilocalories per piece, but they are filling and offer a whole range of important and valuable vital substances, such as

• Per egg (size M, about 60 grams) seven to eight grams of high-quality protein for energy and muscles
• Vitamin A, B2, D and E, i.e. all important vitamins except vitamin C
• Antioxidants like lutein
• Iron, Zinc, Selenium, Calcium, Sodium and Potassium

Last but not least, eggs also contain lecithin. This is a substance in the natural cell membranes that can somewhat slow down the absorption of cholesterol in the body.

Find out where your breakfast egg comes from

So eggs are definitely a healthy treat. But what should you consider when buying? The codes on the eggs provide information about husbandry and origin. The print numbers on the egg mean in detail:

• The first number is the husbandry – 0 stands for organic, 1 for free range, 2 for barn husbandry
• The letters are country codes, DE for Germany, AT for Austria, NL for the Netherlands
• The barn number stands for the farm.

You can find this number on the Website von KAT, the association for controlled alternative forms of animal husbandry eV and get the exact name and address of the company. Only with colored eggs this check is not possible. They don’t have to be encoded.

Shelf life – so eggs stay fresh longer

Freshly laid eggs can be kept for about a month at cool room temperature. They will be best in the Refrigerator stored, at seven degrees.

Boiled eggs only last about two weeks. Incidentally, the brightly colored “snack eggs” that are available in discount stores and butchers can be kept for at least two months because the egg shells are treated with a special varnish.

Freshness test for eggs takes only three seconds

It’s easy to tell if raw eggs are really fresh. Submerge the egg in water. If it’s fresh, it stays on the ground. Older specimens already contain some air and therefore straighten up in the water. If the egg is already spoiled and inedible, it will float to the surface. When it is opened, the typical bad smell of “rotten eggs” (hydrogen sulfide HS) spreads.

Incidentally, hard-boiled eggs also give away their age: fresh eggs are difficult to peel. In older ones, the yolk is on the edge, an air chamber has formed. Incidentally, the green rim that can often be seen around the yolk does not mean that the egg is spoiled. It has only been cooked for a very long time, during which the components of the yolk and albumen react with one another, which leads to the discoloration.