Eggs are okay, every day

"The investigations determined daily egg consumption from multiple food frequency questioners and measured incidence of non fatal myocardial infraction, fatal CHD, and stroke in the two study population. The investigators reported that after adjustments for smoking, age and other potential CHD risk factors, there was no significant evidence for relationship between egg consumption and risk of CHD or stork in either men or women."
__________________________

by Dr. A. Nandakumar

(February 25, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) It is a common belief that eggs are high in cholesterol, which would lead to hyper cholesterolemia. But in fact the egg has several cholesterol lowering factors and includes many health promoting nutrients.

Sherwood Anderson in 1921, in a celebrate short story titled The Egg wrote "One hopes for so much from a chicken and is so dreadfully disillusioned". Anderson’s views were proved right in the early 70 when the eggs were condemned by the heart specialists due to the fear of cholesterol. Even though eggs contribute only a third of the cholesterol in ones diet, over the twenty five years eggs have become the visual icon of high cholesterol, and many consumers have responded by limiting, or eliminating eggs from their diets.

Between 1970 and the 1980 when people started hearing the dietary cholesterol message, egg consumption reduced by 25% all over the world. The average egg consumption from 311 dropped to 238. The avoid "Dietary cholesterol" messages have been so effective that recent surveys show that 45 to 50% of consumers consider dietary cholesterol "a serious health risk". And since most doctors tell the same nutritional message "less than 300 mg per day of dietary cholesterol and no more than 3 to 4 eggs a week" consumers assume that surely the recommendations must be science based and proven safe and effective. Prescriptions against eggs and dietary cholesterol are becoming under increasing scrutiny as new research and documented evidence that the old beliefs hold up well to the rigorous scrutiny. As such the dietary guidelines revised in 2000 by the American Heart Association (AHA) no longer make a recommendation about how many eggs yolks can be eaten per week. In the past, the AHA recommended limiting egg yolks to 3 to 4 per week as a way to help people limit their average daily cholesterol intake to less than 300 mg.

The beginning of Cholesterol "Paranoia"

How the heart specialist and the physicians got started down the road of paranoia about dietary cholesterol is a story well worth relating (prior et al; 1961). Over 30 years ago an experiment was conducted on rabbits that involved feeding them with high fat diets and then administrating cholesterol to them directly. The rabbits soon developed fatty sessions in their arteries, and the scientific link between cholesterol and arterial plaque was established.

As the result of this experiment quickly spread among the medical community, however, there was one important detail about the experiment that was commonly over looked. The cholesterol that was administrated to the rabbits came from a can that had been sitting open upon the shelf. Thus the contents of the can had been oxidized by their contact to open air. When the same experiment was repeated much later, using purified cholesterol, no arterial plaque was produced. That is because oxidized LDL was (and is) the culprit, not total cholesterol. Whether HDL or LDL, nevertheless, a nutritional obsession was born and as with any obsession based on a half truth, it caused its own, often worst set of problems.

Over the years there have been numerous reports that egg consumption is not related to either plasma cholesterol levels or Coronary Heart Disease (CHD) incidence. Data from Framingham Heart Study (2,3) the Multiple Risk Factors Intervention Trail (MRFIT) (4), The Lipid Research Clinics Prevalence Trail (5), the Alpha - Tocopheral, Beta-Carotene Cancer Prevention Study (6), the Nurses Health Study (7), and the Health Professional Follow-up Study (8), all reported that dietary cholesterol intake was not related to either plasma cholesterol levels or CHD incidence. The Nurses Health Study included 80,082 nurses aged 34 to 59 years at study onset followed for 14 years (1980 to 1994). And the health professionals, Follow-up study involved 37,851 males and females aged 40 to 75 years in 1986 and followed for 8 years (1986-1994).

The investigations determined daily egg consumption from multiple food frequency questioners and measured incidence of non fatal myocardial infraction, fatal CHD, and stroke in the two study population. The investigators reported that after adjustments for smoking, age and other potential CHD risk factors, there was no significant evidence for relationship between egg consumption and risk of CHD or stork in either men or women. The researches concluded "that consumption of up to one egg per day is unlikely to have substantial overall impact on the risk of CHD or stork on healthy men and woman."

Most industrial countries have reviewed the experimental and epidemiological evidenced their nutrition experts determine that dietary cholesterol restrictions are unnecessary for a heart healthy diet. In addition, studies have shown that restricting eggs from the diet can have negative nutritional effect. If egg increased the risk of CHD then countries with a high per capita consumption of eggs should have high rates of CHD. The countries with a high per capital intake are Japan, Spain and France. These countries have a very low rate of CHD compared to America.

Cost effective food

The egg is most nutritious, unadulterated, yet relatively inexpensive natural food. An egg is cheaper than a cup of coffee, tea, soft drink, or a cigarette, yet superior in nutritionally. Each egg provides approximately 6 gms to 7 gms of high quality complete protein. Proteins are composed of different combination of 20 amino acids. The human body needs all 20 amino acids for synthesis of its wide range of proteins. The body can synthesis 11 of these amino acids, but unable to make 9 essential amino acids which must be obtained from the diet. The egg contains all the 9 amino acids that human body cannot synthesize to fulfill the needs of human growth and tissue maintenance. The only food that contains a more ideal mix of essential amino acids than egg is mother’s milk. Eggs have high nutrient density providing 12 different vitamins and 11 minerals in excess to the caloric contribution. (Table will give a view of the nutrient dense in an egg) On an average, an egg will supply nearly 25.5% of the total nutrient required per day, at a cost of 6. 25% of the total expenditure on food, for an individual per day.

The salmonella fear

Salmonella micro organism can be found in many food items one can buy in the grocery stores or the supermarkets. This includes meat, poultry, vegetables and eggs. The rate of egg contamination with Salmonella is sporadic, with estimated range from a little as 20,000 eggs (0.005%) to one in ten thousand eggs (0.01%). The prevalence of Salmonella has been declining in the recent past. Thanks to the invention of a new vaccination used in the parent stocks and the laying hens. At most times Salmonella contamination occurs only after the shell is cracked. The fact is Salmonella is highly sensitive to heat and easily destroyed while cooking. Lankans have a habit of cooking food thoroughly, so one need not have to fear Salmonella contamination.

In addition to the above facts, egg contains several special components; which have nutritional, non nutritional and health promoting properties.