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Cracking the health benefits of the humble egg

Susie Burrell

by Susie Burrell

20 Aug 05:45am

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Filed under: Diet, Eggs, Health, Nutrition, Society

36 comments

The humble egg has again found itself in the nutrition firing line. Another research paper was released last week arguing that eating too many eggs can be as bad for heart health as smoking.

An egg a day will keep lots of things at bay. Photo: Greg Sullivan

But before you start throwing away your egg yolks and swapping to processed breakfast cereals to ensure that your breakfast is “healthy”, there are a few other factors that need to be considered.

A high saturated fat intake is known to increase blood cholesterol, and high blood cholesterol is one of the biggest risk factors for heart disease, Australia’s biggest killer.

Based on this, it has been hypothesised for many years that eggs, with their relatively high saturated fat and cholesterol content should be controlled in the diets of those who have heart disease risk factors.

Indeed a recent study published in the prestigious cardiac journal Atherosclerosis found that the damage to arteries of over 1200 study participants who were at risk of heart disease who consume more than three eggs each week was worse than that of smokers.

Unfortunately, other crucial dietary and lifestyle factors were not considered when this conclusion was reached, including factoring in the physical activity levels of study participants or controlling for their daily caloric intake or regular dietary intake patterns.

Yes, eggs do contain cholesterol and saturated fat but so too do numerous other foods including fatty cuts of red meat, full cream milk and most importantly processed and fast foods including biscuits, cakes, burgers, fries, pizza and donuts.

Any diet which contains a significant amount of saturated fat (more than 20-30g per day) is likely to be impacting negatively on heart health, particularly for those individuals who are prone to high cholesterol.

What is far less frequently mentioned when it comes to heart disease risk factors that being overweight is perhaps the greatest risk factor of all. People become overweight not only from a diet high in saturated fat, but from eating too many calories, high fat or not.

For this reason, when working with patients to reduce blood cholesterol levels, any intervention should primarily focus on weight loss, as opposed to only working on reducing a person’s intake of saturated fat.

Not only are inflammatory processes reduced with weight loss, but so too is blood pressure and “bad” cholesterol levels in the bloodstream, even with just a 3-5kg loss.

Now when it comes to eggs here are my thoughts – there is good evidence to show that eating up to two eggs a day as part of a high protein breakfast is a breakfast that is more conducive to weight loss than a high carbohydrate break or cereal rich breakfast.

Two eggs contain almost 20g of high biological value protein, of which there is a significant amount of leucine, the amino acid known to help regulate insulin levels and as a result fat metabolism in the body. For this reason, enjoying one or two eggs each day as part of a calorie controlled breakfast is a viable weight loss option.

Sure, eggs may contain some cholesterol and fat but no more than the potato chips, cakes, biscuits and fast food that too many of us eat far more frequently than we should, particular for those among us with high cholesterol.

So, if you do have high cholesterol and/or a family history of heart disease and want to be vigilant, perhaps reducing to no more than one egg a day is a prudent decision, but ditching the other high fat saturated fat foods in your diet should be your real focus.

Most importantly, losing a few kilograms via a diet packed full of fresh fruit, vegetables, wholegrains in conjunction with regular exercise. That’s rather bland advice I know but far more powerful than eliminating eggs from your diet completely.

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36 comments

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    • Mandy says:

      06:46am | 20/08/12

      The myth of saturated animal fat as a killer is so 1970’s…problem is there’s still a low-fat industry to support…so idiot reports like this are probably going to keep spewing out until it dies…a great explainer in the Guardian…http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/jun/11/why-our-food-is-making-us-fat

      Reply

    • AdamC says:

      10:12am | 20/08/12

      @Mandy, I think you missed a lot of the nuance and ‘horse-sense’ in this article. The writer makes perfectly clear that maintaining a healthy weight and avoiding highly processed foods is the best way for most people to lower their risk of heart disease.

      Personally, I find the ‘sugar addiction’ thesis no less gimmicky and silly than the ‘fat is evil’ credo I grew up with. Almost all of this guff is a way of dressing up standard, low kilojoule diets as some kind of magical new idea.

      ‘I used to eat lots of sugar, thenstopped and lost heaps of weight.’

      Really? F**k me!

    • Samantha says:

      10:26am | 20/08/12

      Are you serious?
      I guess you think that asbestos as a killer is so 1970’s
      DDT as a killer is so 1970’s

      Denial isn’t just a river in Egypt.

    • Ellis says:

      07:23am | 20/08/12

      Read Gary Taubes Susie. Some of the stuff you have written is overly simplistic and the conclusions erroneous. Overall not bad but lay off “fat”.

      Sugar, carbs particularly processed carbs like white flour and rice pose more of a health risk than an egg ever will. Even lots of eggs. Fat doesn’t make you fat. Get theat truth out there and people could actually lose weight as you suggest and then see the benefits that flow.

      It amazes me that we have been fed (pun intended) the ridiculous and totally upside down food pyramid from health “experts” for decades and yet the incidence of heart disease continues to rise. Obesity is still on the rise. Chronic disease is still on the rise.

      Are we supposed to believe that the population as a whole is so stupid that the vast majority have ignored the pyramid advice? Or perhaps they are all following it and consuming their breads and rice and potatoes and causing the damage to themselves.

      The evidence that the way “experts” are telling to eat incorrectly is all around us but we blithely listen to them and wonder why the problems they purport to solve are increasing in frequency.

      Read Taubes. Compelling sensible research and advice.

      Reply

    • M says:

      08:29am | 20/08/12

      “Are we supposed to believe that the population as a whole is so stupid that the vast majority have ignored the pyramid advice?”

      Yes,

    • acotrel says:

      08:39am | 20/08/12

      The major cause of high cholesterol is often not diet.  Adrenalin affects liver making it produce cholesterol, and if the ‘fight or flight’ does not occur, it blocks the arteries.  Unresolved stress is a killer !

    • colin says:

      11:22am | 20/08/12

      @ M 08:29am | 20/08/12

      If that’s the case, you must be as big as a HOUSE.

    • M says:

      11:53am | 20/08/12

      You’d fizz if you saw me shirtless, colin.

    • Scotchfinger says:

      01:17pm | 20/08/12

      Colin and M, the Punch’s new comedy duo, Two Ronnies for the Tweet Generation. Boys *lights up a fat cigar*, walk with me. You wanna go big, I can give you big. You want bewdiful girls, yachts, your own island? *smoke rings* I can get you on the line to Obama. *Fatherly hand on both shoulders, steers to dodgy little office in Charnwood*

    • M says:

      01:40pm | 20/08/12

      @ Scotch, it certainly has the makings of good comedy. The yob vs the yup. The leftie vs the right. The feminist against the chauvanist. The lesbian vs the breeder.

      Hey Colin, we should be a duo. You can do moral indignation and i’ll do truth.

    • Danielle says:

      08:29am | 20/08/12

      All animal products are killers in the long run and so is cooked food, cooking is best done in waterless cookware.
      A natural diet is the only way to a healthy body which then will protect you from the symptoms others call disease, also repairs you from within and fights off viruses etc and you will feel 30 years younger.
      As for the manufactured diet products, it’s a load of bull with less fat as it is mentioned but more chemicals etc.
      I like when someone tells me they like drinking milk, I reply you mean drinking pus ?
      You want truth about good and bad foods, go see this video and then judge for yourself.
      Running Time 58mins Food that kills http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNCGkprGW_o

      Reply

    • Giraffe says:

      09:36am | 20/08/12

      I think you and Ellis ^^ need to get togethor and start a crazies group.

      ‘Are we supposed to believe that the population as a whole is so stupid that the vast majority have ignored the pyramid advice?’

      Is this a trick question?

      ‘A natural diet is the only way to a healthy body which then will protect you from the symptoms others call disease’

      You aren’t an anti vaxer by any chance are you Dan?

    • M says:

      09:54am | 20/08/12

      Meat, milk and cheese haven’t killed me yet, i’ll take my chances.

    • DocBud says:

      10:34am | 20/08/12

      They’ll get you in the end, M, you may live to over 100, but it’ll be the meat, milk and cheese that gets you. If you’re hit by a bus, it will be because the meat, milk and cheese slowed you down. I’ve just had crumpets with lashings of butter, I called the funeral director before I ate them just to make sure he could take me at short notice.

      “symptoms others call disease”

      What do they call them on your planet, Danielle?

    • lea says:

      05:06pm | 20/08/12

      “you mean drinking pus”

      I’m sorry, but WTF? Exactly how have you got it into your head that milk=pus? Wow, you must feel really sorry for all those breast fed babies then?

    • nihonin says:

      09:04am | 20/08/12

      I’ll keep eating them (in moderation), I like my Bumnuts.

      Reply

    • Jo says:

      09:24am | 22/08/12

      I agree. A little of what you like and all that. Chicken butt fruit…mmmm!

    • David says:

      09:27am | 20/08/12

      I wonder at the emphasis on “reducing cholesterol levels” (usually with medication)  rather than changing dietary and exercise habits. It was recently reported in the South Australian “Advertiser” that it was thought that ALL adults should be taking cholesterol medication. 
      Is this really necessary or is it something claimed by those who do the research for the companies which produce the cholesterol lowering drugs? Let’s face it humans have lived good long lives over the centuries without even knowing cholesterol existed and without access to low fat diets. Most exercised off the effect of their diet.
      A “balanced” diet - high in fruit and vegetables, moderate to low in both carbohydrate and protein with the genuinely occasional treat should satisfy most people.  Now though we are told “don’t eat this” and “don’t eat that” by dieticians. Doctors tell us to avoid other things and take medication. “Miracle” diets abound. There are “healthy options” at fast-food outlets.
      But, look in the supermarket and other food shops - the genuinely healthy options cost more. It is easier to prescribe medication and get people to take it than get them to change their dietary habits.

      Reply

    • ChrisW says:

      12:18pm | 20/08/12

      I would like to see some sense and proper education in the cholesterol debate, not just the message “high cholesterol is bad for you”. Is it really? Why? Is this genuinely the case or is it merely “believed to be so”?  If there is a problem what’s the non-drug based solution? (There has to be one.) 
      The idea that ALL adults should take cholesterol lowering drugs (and I read the same report) is ridiculous. The cost alone would be horrendous. There ARE side effects - and for some people these can be severe.  Do the potential benefits outweigh the risks? Is the cost really justified?
      Far too many doctors have an interest in prescribing drugs, indeed they are under pressure to do so - from patients, from drug companies, from colleagues, from governments and so on.  Perhaps we need to change our attitude and ask if we need to make lifestyle changes?
      I don’t know what @David thinks but I would be interested in what other people have to say too. Do you just meekly take the cholesterol medication - or do you try to do something else about the apparent problem instead?

    • Mack says:

      02:19pm | 20/08/12

      I take issue with the author’s line “A high saturated fat intake is known to increase blood cholesterol, and high blood cholesterol is one of the biggest risk factors for heart disease, Australia’s biggest killer”.

      It isn’t ‘known’ at all - this line of thinking is because of Ancel Keys and his largely discredited ‘7 countries’ study. A whole industry of statin pushing pharmaceutical companies have since jumped on the ‘saturated fat is bad’ bandwagon - follow the money, folks….

      http://www.spiked-online.com/Articles/0000000CAE78.htm

      http://www.fathead-movie.com/index.php/no-bologna-facts/

    • Andrew Cate says:

      09:28am | 20/08/12

      GOSH, who needs a nutritionist like Susie to offer practical advice and help interpret scientific research when we have Larry, Curly and Mo offering thier helpful tips. With references like youtube, and such strong arguments from some other bloke I’ve read before, I don’t know why the Punch doesn’t employ you people to write all future nutrition articles.

      Reply

    • Damien says:

      09:28am | 20/08/12

      What poorly researched pile of tripe this is.  Egg (whole) is high in protein, which makes you feel fuller for longer so you eat less harmful processed foods like most breads and all margarines.  Why would you care about a bit of natuaral saturated fat when you put margarine on your bread.

      How about you write an article on real harmful stuff like artificial sweeteners and grain fed beef.

      Reply

    • colin says:

      11:27am | 20/08/12

      @Damien 09:28am | 20/08/12

      Did you even read this article?

      She isn’t advocating not eating eggs - she is talking about cutting down on ALL high-fat foods, not just eggs.
      —————————

      @M 09:54am | 20/08/12

      “Meat, milk and cheese haven’t killed me yet, i’ll take my chances.”

      Myopia, thy name is “M”.

    • darren says:

      09:44am | 20/08/12

      Eggs, bacon and pancakes, all smothered in a ‘healthy’ lashing of maple syrup. Now that’s what I call breakfast.

      Best consumed after 100ish km’s of cycling, including some decent hills.

      Reply

    • Giraffe says:

      10:49am | 20/08/12

      I think you’ve hit the nail on the head Daz, Instead of tryng to find reasons why we shouldn’t eat this, and shouldn’t eat that, people should spend a bit longer off their large asses and ‘everything in moderation’ is fine.

      Swap the panckaes for the largets mug of coffee on offer, and your morning sounds perfect to me.

    • willie says:

      02:35pm | 20/08/12

      Agreed. I know a shearer who would be in his 50s. His diet consists of whatever animal he can kill, roo goat sheep pig, eggs, white bread and beer. He might eat vegetables when no one is looking I don’t know. He also smokes and starts every day with a nice big joint.
      A couple of months ago he needed an operation on his wrist, as he was going to need general aneasthetic the doctor gave him a full physical. Despite all his unhealthy habits Andrew was one of the fittest healthiest 50yo this doctor had tested.
      The secret. Get of your fat arse and do something. Eating eggs or not will only make a slight difference if you are a competitive athlete or a morbidly obese land whale. The rest of you need to stop your mastabatory ” I know more about health than you” and actually be healthy.

      Interestingly after a lifetime of smoking weed the normal aneasthetic did nothing to Andrew, the doctors had to break out some stronger stuff.

    • Aaron says:

      03:10pm | 20/08/12

      When will people realise that it is not what you eat but how much compared to what you do all day? It really is simple - eat more calories than you need, you gain weight. Don’t eat enough then you lose weight. It is too easy for people to blame someone or something else rather than take responsibility themselves.

    • M says:

      03:47pm | 20/08/12

      Aaron, cognitive dissonance is a wonderful thing. I’ve seen a comment on here which basically said “it can’t be as simple as that, I’ve done XYZ and I still haven’t lost weight, ergo, you are wrong, I have a low metabolism, etc, etc, etc.”

    • Don says:

      11:35am | 20/08/12

      The punch should really stay away from this sort of rubbish. Eggs are bad, eggs are good, eggs are bad. This debate has been going on for at least 30 years and frankly I am sick of it, but thankfully not of eggs.

      Reply

    • Aussie Wazza says:

      12:56pm | 20/08/12

      Bumnuts are bonza!

      Reply

    • Argus Tuft says:

      01:19pm | 20/08/12

      When I was a young whipper-snipper out in the bush, we ate a dozen smaller eggs at once, but left some in the nest in the interest of breeding sustainability, as koalas are on the extinction danger list of sea creatures.

      Reply

    • nihonin says:

      01:47pm | 20/08/12

      lol, you greenie smoker you!

    • Anubis says:

      01:48pm | 20/08/12

      @ Angus - the term is Whipper Snapper NOt Wipper Snipper which is a power tool used for trimming grass

    • Baloo says:

      03:17pm | 20/08/12

      Argus Tuft IS a whipper-snipper Anubis.

    • Robert S McCormick says:

      04:14pm | 20/08/12

      For generations we were told that “Eggs are bad for you”. Then a report came out which told us that, yes, if you eat only the egg yolk you are at risk but as the vast majority of people eat both the yolk & the ‘white’ the risks were minimal. Why? Because there are substances in the ‘white’ which cancelled out the fat & cholesterol! So Eggs became an acceptable part of the diet.
      Remember when Pork was almost at the top of the list of “No-No” Foods? It was full of fats & other nasties which would kill us.
      Then suddenly Pork became the “Meat of Choice”, high protein, low-fat.
      For years Pasta was a “No-No” food for it was full of ‘bad’ carbs. Now it is 100% acceptable
      The list of Forbidden Foods was endless.
      The strange thing is that my grandparents, all 4 of whom lived into their late 90s. One pair were “Country People” the other lot “City”. They all worked very hard though in different ways, some hard manual labour others more sedentary.
      They had one thing in common though. They variety of foods they ate.
      All had Porridge with either sugar or salt, Full Cream Milk for breakfast
      All ate large quantities of Red meat, Pork, Lamb, Poultry and, on Fridays, Fish
      They spread Butter on their bread - not some mixture of chemicals as in those “Non Dairy” spreads today. Often there was a slice of bread with Dripping with Smoko! They ate everything in moderation.
      Then along came the “nutritionists” the Weight Control people all of whom saw a way to make a lot of money very quickly & to do so they started scaring us all to death with their weird ideas, their manipulation of the truth to suit their agendas.
      years ago I went to my then GP. I had had my Cholesterol checked. He told me that I should watch my fats intake. I asked him if I should switch from Butter to those man-made, lab-produced “spreads”. His response was:
      “Well it depends on what you want to die from doesn’t it? If you just cut down on the Butter that should do the trick & you will, eventually, die of natural causes. On the other hand if you want tp put yourself at risk of developing cancers brought about by the accumulation of toxic, carcinogenic chemicals as a result then, by all means, switch to those lab-produced poisons. That was 30+ years ago. I still eat Butter. My ‘bad’ cholesterol is very low & the ‘Good” one excellent.
      But then I do also do a lot of hard exercise and watch not so much the what but How Much I put into my mouth - I’m talking about food - you dirty-minded brat!!!

      Reply
 
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