New Research Shows how eating one egg a day could help prevent heart disease.

I am glad to see articles with headlines supporting the humble egg. For too long there has been the message that eggs are not that good for you, in fact eating too many eggs is bad for you. It all started with the announcement by the health Lobby that  cholesterol was a baddy, and published articles on the perils of eating too much cholesterol, and the poor egg’s reputation suffered serious damage. Thanks to the more astute scientists who saw flaws in what was being said about cholesterol and found  the cholesterol story was a wee bit more complicated there were in fact two cholesterols:

Good Cholesterol is High Density Lipoprotien (HDL) and will help keep our arteries clear of fatty build up and HDL’s friends are:

• Oatmeal
• Whole grains
• Barley
• Beans
• Fruits and vegetables
• Leafy greens such as spinach, kale, collard greens, lettuce
• Avocado
• Eggplant
• Eggs
• Nuts
• Soybeans and tofu
• Fatty fish such as salmon and tuna (in moderation)
• Red wine (in moderation)
• Black tea
• Garlic
• Fiber supplements

Bad Cholesterol is Low Density Lipoprotein(LDL)  and will help clog your arteries. LDL’s friends are :

• High fat diet
• Obesity
• Sedentary lifestyle
• Genetics
• Alcoholism
• Liver disease
• Smoking
• Diabetes

So from this lists it is easy to see how LDL and its mates can be run out of town.

This eggcellent  article on the study of egg consumption and heart health provides insight into the benefit of eating the egg.

• Scientists compared people who ate eggs daily with those who ate eggs rarely or not at all.
• After 9 years, regular egg eaters had a 28% lower risk of stroke, and 18% lower risk of dying from cardiovascular disease.
• Eggs contain a number of vitamins, minerals and nutrients vital for our cells and therefore our general health.

Forget apples – it could be an egg a day that keeps the doctor away.

This could be the new catch phrase according to new research from China, published in the journal Heart.

A team of researchers from China and the UK, led by Professor Liming Li and Dr Canqing Yu from the School of Public Health, Peking University Health Science Center, wanted to see if there was a link between eating eggs and developing cardiovascular disease, ischaemic heart disease (artery blockage), major coronary events, hemorrhagic stroke (ruptured blood vessel), and ischaemic stroke.

They used data from an ongoing study, which included more than half a million adults aged 30 to 79 from 10 different locations in China.

About 416,000 participants who were free of prior health problems like cancer, heart disease, and diabetes were chosen. They were asked about how often they ate eggs, then the researched followed up with them after 8.9 years. (Data was collected between 2004 and 2008.)

About 13% of participants said they had eggs every day, while 9% said they never or rarely consumed eggs.

Once followed up, 83,977 people had cardiovascular disease, 9,985 of whom died. And there were 5,103 “major coronary events,” such as stroke or heart attack.

The Results Of The Research Were Eggciting

Results showed the people who had eggs daily had a lower risk of cardiovascular disease overall. Up to one egg a day was associated with a 26% lower risk of haemorrhagic stroke, a 28% lower risk of dying from a haemorrhagic stroke, and an 18% lower risk of dying from cardiovascular disease.

There was also a 12% reduced risk of ischaemic heart disease for people eating about five eggs a week, compared to people who are them rarely.

Hemorrhagic stroke is more common China than in higher income countries, whereas ischaemic heart disease is the leading cause of premature death in most Western countries.

Eggs Have Been Misunderstood

Eggs have a complicated history in the media. They are a major source of dietary cholesterol, which meant they were assumed to be bad for us for a while. But more recent research found they actually help raise your good cholesterol, also called High-density lipoprotein (HDL), which is an important component of all our cells, and actually helps remove other harmful forms of cholesterol from your bloodstream.

Eggs Pack A Punch!

Eggs are also full of protein, vitamins, and bioactive components like phospholipids which are found in all cell membranes. One egg also contains 35% of your daily choline, which is an important nutrient for cognitive function, and might protect against Alzheimer’s disease.

“Our findings contribute scientific evidence to the dietary guidelines with regard to egg consumption for the healthy Chinese adult,” said the authors of the study.

Article by Lindsay Dodgson

Eggs got bad press during the Cholesterol debate when everybody jumped on the band wagon and said cholesterol is bad FULL STOP. Well time has past, research has been undertaken and it has been established that there are two cholesterols – a good one and a bad one. Eggs have the good one. This is one of the reasons that eggs as a food are just a great part of the Keto diet – they are a powerhouse of goodies that can be included in so many different Ketogenic lifestyle recipes.

I appreciate your reading this far, thanks – I hope you found it interesting.