An egg a day keeps the heart disease away, according to a new study. People who consume an egg just about every day may have a lower risk of heart attack and stroke than individuals who don't consume eggs at all, it suggests.
The study, which involved over 400,000 adults in China, claims daily egg eaters have an 18 percent lower risk of dying from cardiovascular diseases — which include heart failure, arrhythmias, heart valve problems, strokes, heart attacks — compared with adults who didn't eat eggs entirely.
The findings were published in the Heart journal on May 21.
Heart Disease Risks
Elevated blood sugar, obesity, and high blood pressure are just some of the risk contributors to cardiovascular disease, which could be triggered by physical inactivity, alcoholism, smoking, and unhealthy diets.
Some doctors advise against eating too much eggs because while they contain high-quality protein and other beneficial nutrients, they also have high levels of cholesterol, which is believed to be harmful to the body, according to study coauthor Canqing Yu.
However, recent studies linking egg consumption and cardiovascular diseases remain controversial because of limited information and small sample sizes. As such, Yu and his colleagues decided to investigate further.
To start, they used data from an ongoing study involving half a million adults residing among 10 regions in China, focusing on 416,213 individuals who have never been diagnosed with cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, and cancer.
About 13 percent of the participants said they ate an egg each day, while 9 percent said they didn't. The researchers tracked these people for nine years, recording any occurrences of major coronary events, including heart attacks and strokes. During a follow-up, they found that 9,985 people passed away because of heart problems and, in all, 83,977 people developed heart disease. Analyzing the data further, they concluded that eating an egg every day was linked to a lower risk of heart disease compared with not eating eggs.
Overall, the study found that daily egg eaters are 11 percent less likely to develop cardiovascular disease.
"The take-home message from this is that when consumed in moderation, there does not appear to be an elevated risk of developing heart disease or stroke," said Luc Djousse, a researcher at Harvard Medical School who was not involved in the study.
Don't Eat Eggs Willy-Nilly
Of course, the study shouldn't be taken as confirmation that eating eggs every day is safe. It simply established a link between egg consumption and lower risk of heart disease. Needless to say that people should not rush to make three-egg omelettes for breakfast every day. That's because the study only looked at the effects of eating one egg per day — more research is needed to determine the effects of eating more than one egg daily.
