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For years the “health mafia” have been telling us that eggs are bad for us.   But that advice simply isn’t true.

Fears that eating one egg a day will lead to high cholesterol and heart disease have been challenged by scientific research.

It seems that there is no reason after all for healthy people to limit egg consumption to three a week — even though nearly half of British people believe that this is the maximum recommended number.

A paper to be published soon in the British Nutrition Foundation's Nutrition Bulletin has found that cholesterol in eggs has only a small and clinically insignificant effect on blood cholesterol. While people with high blood cholesterol are at increased risk of heart disease, only a third of the cholesterol in the body is attributed to diet.

The British Heart Foundation revised its advice on egg consumption two years ago and no longer suggests a maximum of three eggs a week.

This advice is in line with guidance from the Food Standards Agency, which also says that most people have no reason to worry about the number of eggs they eat a week — though anyone who has inherited a genetic susceptibility to high blood cholesterol linked to increased risk of coronary heart disease, about one in 500 people in Britain, is still advised to stick to two or at most three eggs a week.

The study concludes that health chiefs and GPs should demolish the myths about eggs and heart disease and communicate a message that there is no need to limit the number eaten as long as they are part of a healthy low saturated fat diet.

Professor Griffin said: “The ingrained misconception linking egg consumption to high blood cholesterol and heart disease must be corrected.

The amount of saturated fat in our diet exerts an effect on blood cholesterol that is several times greater than the relatively small amounts of dietary cholesterol.

“The UK public does not need to be limiting the number of eggs they eat.”

But this isn’t really news  -

A Kansas State University study published in the Journal of Nutrition in 2001 showed that the absorption of cholesterol from eggs is reduced by lecithin, another compound found in eggs. The researchers found that lecithin, a type of fatty acid, interferes with the uptake of cholesterol in the intestine.

While anyone with high blood cholesterol or other risk factors for cardiovascular disease should talk with their doctor before making significant changes to their diet, these researchers said most people shouldn’t worry about eating one to two eggs a day.

This just goes to show how long it takes the health bureaucracy to catch up with published research  -  especially if there is no drug company lobbying them to do so.

You should also remember that not all eggs are created equal. The quality of the eggs depends greatly on the health of the chicken responsible for it. This is why it's really worth paying those extra few cents for free range or even organic eggs.

Of course, the best eggs are those you produce yourself.  Chooks are very easy to look after and will produce healthy nutritious protein from the waste you would normally send to the tip, which generates methane gas as it rots away.

Protect the environment and protect yourself—grow your own eggs!

The Good Egg

Did you know?....

Egg protein is the gold standard of protein in food. 

The protein in egg whites is considered ideal because it contains all the essential amino acids in proper proportion for human nutrition.  Also, eggs are a significant source of iron, riboflavin, folate and vitamins B12, and E.

Egg yolks are one of the few foods that naturally contain vitamin D.

Eggs contain the carotenoids lutein and zeaxanthin, yellow/orange carotenoids that reduce risk of cataracts and age related macular degeneration .

Eggs are an excellent source of choline, essential for function of all cells in the human body.

Eating at least 6 eggs/week may protect women from breast cancer, lowering risk of breast cancer by as much as 44%.

Eggs are also low-fat, containing only 5 grams of total fat and just 1.5 grams of saturated fat.

All of this in one large egg with only 75 calories and costing only about 30 cents

This brings us to a simple conclusion:  eggs are an inexpensive, nutrient-dense food.

Does the egg’s colour make one healthier than the other?

According to the Egg Nutrition Centre in Washington, D.C., the answer is No. The colour of the shell has nothing to do with the egg’s quality, nutritional value or flavour.

They say the reason brown eggs cost more is because the brown-egg variety of chickens are bigger eaters and cost more to feed. The cost is then pushed forward to the consumers who prefer brown eggs..