THE EGG MAKES A COMEBACK
Is it really true that eggs contain a lot of cholesterol and that I should limit my intake to one to two per week if I do not want to develop heart disease?
mench__ee@yahoo.com
Your information is outdated. Although eggs indeed contain a lot of cholesterol, the latest pronouncement of experts is that people need not limit their intake of this food item.
An egg is actually the closest thing we have to a complete food. In terms of nutritional value, it is unrivaled by any other food item, and it is incredibly cheap.
Although an egg is not a good source of calories—a medium-sized chicken egg supplies a mere 66 calories, which amounts to only around three percent of the average energy requirement of an adult—it is loaded with proteins and micronutrients (i.e., vitamins and minerals).
The proteins in eggs are easily digestible and of high quality. A mediumsized egg contains about 6.1 grams of proteins, enough to supply about 10 percent of a person's daily requirement. These proteins contain all the essential amino acids that are needed for growth and development.
Eggs contain many of the minerals that are needed for health. They are excellent sources of iodine, necessary to produce thyroid hormone; phosphorus and calcium, required for bone health; zinc, vital for wound healing, growth and fighting infection; and iron, the essential ingredient of red blood cells. Vitamins found in generous amounts in eggs include vitamins A, D, B6 and B12, thiamine, riboflavin, niacin, and folate.
Despite its excellent nutritional profile, the egg went into disfavor in the late 1960s when the American Heart Association (AHA) advised people to limit their intake of eggs to three to four per week (two for people with known coronary heart disease) because eggs contain a lot of cholesterol and scientific data has established that a persistently high blood cholesterol level leads to atherosclerosis (i.e., deposition of cholesterol in the walls of blood vessels), a major underlying cause of heart attack and stroke.
Eggs really hold considerable amounts of cholesterol, which incidentally, is all in the yolk. Actually, today’s eggs contain about 12 percent less cholesterol than eggs of 20 years ago, but the 177mg cholesterol that a medium-sized egg has is still 60 percent of the recommended daily consumption for adults.
As early as 2000, however, the American Heart Association (AHA) already made a turn around on its recommendation regarding egg intake because newer reputable and comprehensive epidemiological studies have shown that consumption of one egg per day is unlikely to have any substantial overall impact on the risk for coronary heart disease or stroke in healthy people. That year, the AHA has decided to no longer make any recommendation on how many egg yolks can be eaten per week. The latest Dietary Guidelines for Americans (2015) issued by the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee should further reverse the public’s adverse opinion on eggs. The guidelines state that cholesterol is not considered a nutrient of concern for overconsumption, although saturated fatty acids still are. Re-examination by the committee of available scientific data evidently showed that there is really no appreciable relationship between consumption of dietary cholesterol and blood level of cholesterol.
Apparently, cholesterol blood levels—incidentally, high blood cholesterol is still considered an important risk factor in the development of atherosclerosis—are impacted not by dietary intake, but by genetics and high saturated fat intake. Eggs are high on cholesterol but low on saturated fatty acids—which means eggs do not predispose to atherosclerosis. Nine percent of the content of an egg is fat, but only 28 percent is saturated, most of the fat is monounsaturated (approximately 38 percent) and polyunsaturated (16 percent), which are essential fatty acids that are good for the body.
medical_notes@yahoo.com