Americans flocking to eggs more than ever

Americans are devouring eggs in numbers not seen in nearly five decades — about 279 per year per person, government forecasts show — continuing a four-year trajectory.

The recent resurgence of eggs — hard-boiled, sunny side up or whatever the recipe calls for — follows recent shifts in nutrition guidance from the federal government and an evolving understanding of cholesterol in the American diet.

Egg consumption per capita increased more than 6 percent in 2016, the same year when the government dropped its caution about eating such high-cholesterol foods as shrimp, lobster and eggs. The food recommendations were part of an influential nutrition advice book that the federal government updates every five years, to help Americans eat healthier. But the newest version of the “Dietary Guidelines for Americans” contained a striking change: It dropped a restriction on dietary cholesterol, a limit that had defined public health messaging for nearly 40 years.

Eggs are nutrient-dense, according to federal guidelines, and are grouped with lean meats, poultry, seafood, legumes and nuts as a healthy source of protein. The American Heart Association recommends eating eggs, poultry or meat eight to nine times a week, or one egg or two egg whites in a single serving.

According to the research arm of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Americans reached the height of their egg consumption at the conclusion of World War II, averaging 404, or more than one a day, in 1945. It bottomed out at 229 in 1992, according to the USDA’S Economic Research Service.

Brigitte Zeitlin, a registered dietitian who owns a private nutrition practice in New York, said she recommends eating eggs regularly because they are a lean source of protein that can promote heart health.

Despite the government guidelines listing eggs as a nutrient-dense protein, the Food and Drug Administration’s definition for “healthy” on food labels does not apply to egg producers, because eggs exceed the agency’s criteria for fat and cholesterol.