Once vilified for their cholesterol content, eggs have surged back onto the nutrition scene. But the story now is much different than it was in the 1990s. Eggs are one of the healthiest animal-based proteins out there – for a good reason! Read on to learn how regular egg consumption benefits your body.
Get Your Choline
Eggs (specifically egg yolks!) are one of the best food sources of a crucial nutrient called choline. If you haven’t heard of it, you’re not alone! Choline has only recently started getting the attention it deserves. Choline is critical for numerous processes in the body, including neuron development, cell signalling, nerve impulse transmission and metabolism.
Choline acts as a methyl donor, which is necessary for DNA methylation, a key epigenetic process. It is a vital nutrient before and during pregnancy due to its role in brain and spinal cord development. Adequate choline intake in the prenatal period is also associated with long-term cognitive function.
Beyond the prenatal period, choline plays a critical role in brain health. Choline’s role in DNA methylation means it can modify your genome through neuronal gene methylation, expression and activity. These processes may be involved in the prevention of neurodegenerative diseases.
When it comes to choline, eggs matter: one study compared choline intakes with food consumption patterns and found that people who consumed eggs regularly were more than 50% more likely to meet their choline requirements.
Up Your HDL Cholesterol
Cholesterol often gets a bad reputation, even though the scientific community debunked the myth that the cholesterol you eat through your diet impacts your blood cholesterol levels many years ago. Cholesterol is a nutrient, and it’s a crucial one at that. So crucial that your body makes approximately 80% of its cholesterol (meaning that it doesn’t want to rely on having to get it through diet).
Cholesterol is a type of fat, so it can’t travel unaccompanied through the bloodstream (we know that fat and water don’t mix). Instead, it travels around your body chaperoned by lipoproteins. There are several different types of lipoproteins, each with a specific role.
HDL (high-density lipoprotein) cholesterol is known as “good” cholesterol. While that’s an overly simplistic way to think about it, HDL cholesterol levels are associated with beneficial health outcomes. This is because HDL cholesterol particles remove any cholesterol that has built up along artery walls.
On the other hand, LDL (low-density lipoprotein) cholesterol is known as “bad” cholesterol. Higher levels of LDL cholesterol, especially levels of oxidized LDL cholesterol, tend to be associated with adverse health outcomes. This is because LDL cholesterol carries cholesterol to your tissues, which can contribute to the build-up of plaque in your arteries.
So, where do eggs come in? Once labelled as one of the key culprits contributing to heart disease, we now know that egg consumption actually has a very desirable effect on your cholesterol levels. Regular egg consumption increases HDL cholesterol levels without increasing LDL levels. In one study, participants achieved these changes by consuming 1-3 eggs per day.
Daily egg consumption also modifies the composition of HDL cholesterol, such that HDL particles can accept even more cholesterol as they travel throughout your bloodstream. Given what you now know about how HDL cholesterol works, you can see how this is a positive change.
Complement Your Lower-Carb Diet
Decreasing intake of carbs to some degree is a way of eating that many people have adopted to meet their weight loss goals and improve their overall health. Low-carb diets took off after the low-fat craze of the 1980s-2000s started to fall out of fashion. During the low-fat diet period, intake of refined carbs and added sugars skyrocketed in everyone’s effort to avoid fat at all costs. But this had unintended consequences.
A higher intake of sugar and refined carbohydrates is associated with increased inflammation in the body, which can contribute to many health consequences associated with chronic inflammation. One study showed that regularly consuming just one sugar-sweetened soda per day increased markers of inflammation in the body.
So while decreased intake of refined carbs and added sugars is likely going to benefit your overall health, it turns out that eggs might be able to help your lower-carb diet even more.
Studies have shown that adding eggs to a carbohydrate-restricted diet (containing less than 30% total energy as carbohydrate) led to decreased markers of inflammation than consuming an egg substitute. This suggests that eggs are an excellent food to include in your lower-carb diet because they help to lower your body’s inflammation even more.
Help Regulate Your Hunger
Okay, that’s a big statement, but it’s a testament to how amazing eggs are. Several complex mechanisms regulate your hunger, including a hormonal component. A hormone called ghrelin is known as the hunger hormone. It stimulates your appetite and drives signalling in your brain that tells you to eat.
One randomized trial showed that consuming two eggs for breakfast compared to a bowl of oatmeal led to decreased circulating ghrelin levels. Participants also self-reported feeling more full after the egg breakfast than the oatmeal breakfast.
Another randomized trial compared an egg breakfast to a bagel breakfast. This study also found that ghrelin concentrations decreased after the egg breakfast and showed the bagel breakfast increased plasma glucose levels. Participants ate more calories in the 24 hours after consuming the bagel breakfast than the egg breakfast.
Get a Dose of Lutein and Zeaxanthin
Lutein and zeaxanthin are two powerhouse antioxidants for eye health that are abundant in eggs. The pigment in your eyes, known as macular pigment, is made up of lutein and zeaxanthin compounds. Higher levels of macular pigment in the eyes are inversely related to your risk of age-related macular generation, a condition whereby your central vision declines over time.
So, it makes sense that intake of lutein and zeaxanthin is associated with a protective effect against age-related macular degeneration. Early evidence also suggests there may be a role of lutein in the prevention of cognitive decline, but further research is needed to confirm these associations.
The lutein and zeaxanthin content of eggs is significant: one study showed that consuming one egg per day significantly increased lutein and zeaxanthin concentrations after one month.
Consume a High-Quality Protein Source
Eggs contain all of the essential amino acids, making them a high-quality protein source. They have a protein digestibility and quality score of 1.0, which is considered a perfect score. Each egg contains approximately 6 grams of protein with only 80 calories.
You’ve already learned several incredible benefits of eggs, so adding a high-quality protein source is the cherry on top. But sufficient protein intake is necessary for all of the benefits we’ve discussed so far to make a difference in your body. Why? Because protein is the building block for all of your body’s tissues, making it essential for supporting weight loss, optimal function of all of your organs, hormone regulation, and so much more.
Takeaway
Gone are the days of eggs being feared for their cholesterol content. Turns out, eggs are a superfood that are an excellent addition to your diet. And, yes, you can eat them every day (if you want to!).
