Fact about Egg and cholesterol

I have noticed that people often ask questions like - can I eat eggs? I heard it has much cholesterol. Some people believe egg may be unhealthy because of its high cholesterol. Some doctors tells their patients to avoid egg because egg will increase their cholesterol level.



If you are among these people, I'm glad to inform you that that's an old story. Recent study has shown that eggs are healthy and can even improve your health as they have nutrients that could be difficult to find in other foods.


Epidemiological research, which is a type of research that studies large population for some period and after study, this research will analyse their diet and health. This study has discovered there is no link between egg consumption and increase in cardiovascular disease.


In fact, researchers studied nearly half a million Chinese adults over nine years and discovered that eating one egg daily resulted in reduced risk of cardiovascular/heart disease and stroke. However, researchers have made us known that people who participated in the study do not usually consume "western diet", which might include foods like bacon, sausage, cheese, muffins e.t.c that are high in saturated and trans fat.


The main contributors to high level of bad Cholesterol in the system are "saturated and trans fat".


Of course eggs are high in cholesterol, about 186mg which 184mg is present in the yolk, but in addition, one egg has 7 grams of high quality protein, and relatively low saturated fat, 1.6 grams of saturated fat. Egg also contain vitamins, minerals and carotenoids.


Trans fats are commonly found in processed foods like chips, cakes, pie crusts, biscuit, frozen pizza, cookies, margarine e.t.c

Saturated fats are found in foods like butter, cheese, regular-fat milk, lamb, fatty beef e.t.c


Egg has the ability to improve HDL cholesterol (good cholesterol) level which can be involved in clearing bad cholesterol particles from the arteries. Egg however, may not increase or reduce bad cholesterols themselves.


Study also shows that Japanese consume large amount of eggs and the people usually have low levels of cholesterol and cardiovascular disease compared to people in the developed countries. This is because they consume less saturated fat.


According to another recent study from May, published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, it has been discovered that consuming at least 12 eggs a week for three months did not increase cardiovascular risk factors for people with Prediabetes and Type 2 diabetes. The out-turn however went together with a healthy diet programmed to help partakers lose weight.


In addition to high quality protein, egg also contain some vitamins which boost immune system and bone health, egg also has choline which help metabolism and liver function and boost fetal brain development.

Lutein and Zeaxanthin which are also present in egg yolk help reduce the risk of cataracts and macular degeneration.


DAILY REQUIREMENT OF EGGS

Daily requirement of eggs depends on different factors. The American Heart Association no longer includes limits on the number of egg yolk to consume but still limit the cholesterol intake to 300mg daily or 200mg if you have high level of bad cholesterol or if you have cardiovascular/heart disease.

Finally, daily intake of egg as part of ones diet does not increase the risk of cardiovascular disease, in fact, according to new research in China, study shows that partakers who normally consume up to an egg daily had 26% lower risk of hemorrhagic stroke and 12% decreased risk of ischaemic heart disease.



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