The Health Benefits of Eggs

It's time to enjoy eggs again. There's evidence that eating an egg a day can have positive health benefits. Discover more about the health benefits of eggs here.

If you gave up eating eggs in hopes of keeping artery-clogging cholesterol levels low, take heart. Now you can have scrambled and poached eggs and omelets for breakfast without guilt.

For almost 40 years, Americans were warned eating cholesterol-rich foods like shrimp, lobster, and eggs frequently was a bad and potentially health-harming idea. But after research mounted showing dietary cholesterol doesn’t significantly raise blood levels of cholesterol or increase your risk of heart disease, the U.S. Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee, the top government nutrition group, dropped their previous advice. The group’s Dietary Guidelines for Americans no longer places a daily limit on dietary cholesterol.

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“The relationship between dietary cholesterol intake and heart disease risk has been hotly debated for more than 50 years, but the preponderance of respected studies and position statements from the American College of Cardiology, the American Heart Association, and the European Guidelines on Cardiovascular Disease Prevention in Clinical Practice, all indicate that there is no appreciable relationship between consumption of dietary cholesterol and serum cholesterol,” said Tia M. Rains, PhD, a nutrition expert with Ajinomoto Health & Nutrition North America, Inc.

There’s other evidence about the health benefits of eggs. One study found consuming eggs can significantly reduce the risk of stroke — a leading cause of death in the U.S.

Health benefits of eggs

Researchers from the EpidStrategies conducted a systematic review and extensive analysis of previous large studies carried out over 30 years, to investigate the relationship between egg consumption and coronary heart disease (in 276,000 subjects) and stroke (in a total of 308,000 subjects).

The results showed eating an egg a day was not linked to an increased risk of coronary heart disease. But it was linked to something else — a 12 percent reduction in stroke risk.

The research team can’t say exactly how eating eggs regularly can lower the risk of stroke, but epidemiologist Dominik Alexander, PhD, thinks it’s likely due to the high nutrition value of eggs.

Facts about egg nutrition

Eggs are low in calories and loaded with the antioxidants lutein and zeaxanthin, as well as vitamins E, D, B12, A and other nutrients, according to the Egg Nutrition Center, the research arm of the American Egg Board.

"Eggs do have many positive nutritional attributes, including antioxidants, which have been shown to reduce oxidative stress and inflammation,” said Alexander, who headed the study. “They are also an excellent source of protein, which has been related to lower blood pressure."

The research didn’t differentiate among the ways eggs can be prepared — whether they are scrambled, hard-boiled, fried, or baked. However you cook them, you can incorporate the health benefits of eggs into your meals in a variety of ways.

“One of my favorite ways to eat eggs is on top of greens such as spinach and kale sautéed in olive oil, which fits perfectly with dietary recommendations for reducing disease risk,” said Rains. “In fact, eggs are a great pairing with all vegetables, whole grains, and even other sources of lean protein such as fish.”

Visit the American Egg Board website for an assortment of healthy recipes that incorporate eggs, including directions for making breakfast tostada, ravioli omelet frittata, and cheesy cauliflower “grits” with poached eggs.

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