What happens if you eat one egg a day? Will it increase your risk of heart disease and cancer?

Eggs are an affordable and nutritious food. Everyone likes to eat them, and they can be steamed, boiled, fried, stir-fried, and braising. However, in recent years, many people are afraid to eat eggs, let alone egg yolks, as they think they will increase cholesterol and affect blood lipids. Is this really the case?

Study: Eating 5 or more eggs a week reduces the risk of diabetes and high blood pressure

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There are many studies on the health risks of eating eggs, and the high risk of diabetes and high blood pressure are some of the more controversial issues. In fact, if you look closely at these studies, they are very imprecise: they did not ask the surveyed population whether they had a history of disease; the surveys were all conducted by asking people on the street to count the number of people. Therefore, many research results cannot prove that eating eggs every day increases the risk of the disease.

A recent study published in Nutrients by a research team from Boston University in the United States showed that consuming 5 or more eggs per week can significantly reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes and hypertension by 28% and 32%, respectively.

The study divided all 2,349 participants into three groups based on their egg intake:

Group 1: <0.5 eggs/week

Group 2: 0.5-5 eggs/week

Group 3: ≥5 eggs/week

Among them, participants who ate ≥5 eggs/week tended to have higher BMI and dietary cholesterol intake, but their fasting blood glucose levels were lower. The data showed that after adjusting for multiple variables, the average fasting blood glucose concentration of participants who ate ≥5 eggs/week was 3.7 mg/dL lower than those who ate almost no eggs, and the difference was more obvious in overweight people.

The results showed that compared with <0.5 eggs/week, participants who ate ≥5 eggs/week had a significantly lower risk of developing impaired fasting glucose or type 2 diabetes by 28%, and a 32% lower risk of developing hypertension.

In conclusion, this prospective study suggests that consuming five or more eggs per week does not adversely affect glucose- or blood pressure-related outcomes; rather, moderate egg consumption may reduce the risk of diabetes and hypertension, especially when combined with a healthy dietary pattern.

The best way to eat eggs to retain more nutrients

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The best way to cook eggs is to boil them. Studies have shown that the digestibility of nutrients in eggs is ranked as follows: boiled eggs > scrambled eggs > fried eggs.

The protein digestion and absorption rate of steamed, boiled or fried eggs is over 95%, but frying or scrambling eggs will cause the loss of some vitamins.

1. Control the boiling time of eggs

When boiling eggs, it is recommended to boil the water and then simmer for about 5 minutes. Cooking for too long can easily cause excessive coagulation of the protein and oxidation of cholesterol and fatty acids.

The cooking time of eggs should not be too short. The digestion and absorption rate of raw eggs is only about 50%. Eggs are also easily contaminated by salmonella and other bacteria, so eating them raw poses a safety hazard. Unless the eggs are edible raw.

2. Avoid eating raw eggs

Many people have the habit of eating eggs, but this habit is not worth promoting because when eating raw eggs, the nutritional value that our body can absorb is between 30% and 50%, and the nutritional value of eggs will be lost to a large extent.

Moreover, eggs are easily infected with Salmonella. If the raw eggs we eat contain Salmonella, it will cause us to have serious intestinal diseases such as abdominal pain and diarrhea, so it is not recommended to eat raw eggs.

3. Avoid frying eggs

We should try to avoid frying eggs when eating them. This is because fried foods generally produce carcinogens such as benzopyrene, and eating fried eggs frequently is more harmful to the human body than that. Related studies have shown that after eggs are fried, the content of glycated protein will increase to 30 times the original, and this substance will accelerate human aging and damage multiple organs.

In addition, long-term use of fried eggs can also cause obesity. Because fried eggs are fried foods, the calories are very high, and it is difficult for our body to consume these calories through normal exercise, so it is not recommended to fry eggs on a regular basis.
What happens to your body if you eat an egg every day?

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1. Nutritional supplement

The protein contained in eggs is closest to the pattern of human protein and is known as the "perfect protein pattern". It has the highest biological value among food proteins, is rich in all essential amino acids for the human body, and is easily digested and absorbed by the human body.

2. Promote cardiovascular health

Eggs are one of the richest sources of dietary cholesterol, so many people think that eating eggs will harm cardiovascular health. However, the actual situation is different from what many people think. Eggs can actually promote cardiovascular health.

An article published in the journal eLife by Yu Canqing and others from the School of Public Health at Peking University pointed out that eating one egg a day can increase the level of heart-healthy metabolites (apolipoprotein A1) in the blood and reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease.

3. The brain is more flexible

Choline is an important brain-boosting nutrient that is beneficial to brain development. Every 100g of eggs contains about 251mg of choline. Even after being boiled, fried, or stir-fried, the choline retention rate in eggs is still very high.

Data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture show that the choline retention rate of boiled eggs in shells is 90%, the choline retention rate of fried eggs is 85%, and the choline retention rate of scrambled eggs is 84%.

4. Improves vision

Lutein exists in the macula of the retina, which can reduce the damage caused by blue light to the eyes and prevent eye diseases such as cataracts and age-related macular degeneration. Egg yolk is one of the best sources of lutein, with high bioavailability and good absorption, which is good for improving vision and protecting the eyes.

5. Improve blood sugar control

Nutritionists at Florida State University conducted a study in which 42 overweight or obese adults with type 2 diabetes (or pre-diabetes) ate one egg a day. After 12 weeks, they found that their fasting blood sugar levels dropped by 4.4% and their body's sensitivity to insulin improved.

Source: Chongqing Tianji Network Co., Ltd.

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