Contrary to the widespread notion that the consumption of eggs increases the risk of heart diseases, due to its high content of cholesterol, a new research has found that about one egg per day could help us steer clear of cardiovascular conditions.
Although several early studies have shown that eggs intake can be harmful to people, especially patients of heart diseases, due to yolks' high cholesterol content, but the new study suggested that eggs are also super foods with loads of protein, vitamins, phospholipids, and carotenoids.
The recent research conducted by Chinese scientists from the School of Public Health at Peking University Health Science Center in Beijing, holds that a diet in which eggs are consumed on a regular basis may actually protect cardiovascular health.
Explaining the motive for the research, the Lead investigators Prof. Liming Li and Dr. Canqing Yu, noted that their team was motivated to embark on the study due to the high rate of cardiovascular conditions around the globe, with Nigeria having about 150.000 deaths annually, 84 million people affected in the United States and in China, an estimated “837,300 urban residents and 1,023,400 rural residents died from cerebrovascular diseases,” according to recent data.
To arrive at their findings, the team recruited 416,213 healthy participants from 2004-2008, who were free of cancer, CVD, and diabetes at baseline.
According to the findings, published in journal Heart and reported on Medical News Today , the participants reported how often they ate eggs — 13.1 percent of them admitted to daily consumption (about 0.76 eggs per day) and 9.1 percent said that they only indulged in eggs rarely (0.29 eggs per day) or not at all.
The findings further revealed that there was a median follow-up period of 8.9 years, during which new health diagnoses and deaths were recorded. During that time, 83,977 participants received a CVD diagnosis, and 9,985 people died due to CVD-related causes. Moreover, 5,103 major coronary events were recorded.
“The researchers' analysis revealed that individuals who usually ate about one egg per day had a 26 percent lower risk of experiencing hemorrhagic stroke, a 28 percent lower risk of death due to this type of event, and an 18 percent lower risk of CVD-related mortality.
“Almost daily egg consumption — or around 5.32 eggs per week — was also linked to a 12 percent lower risk of ischemic heart disease, compared with people who never or rarely ate this food (amounting to approximately 2.03 eggs per week).
“The present study finds that there is an association between moderate level of egg consumption (up to 1 egg/day) and a lower cardiac event rate,” the study authors explained.
The takeaway from the recent study is that moderate consumption of eggs-one per day, is healthful rather than harmful, while excessive intake of eggs could be harmful to the human system.
