Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Eggs - another study says they do no harm......

I love eggs and tend to eat them everyday - scrambled usually, but fried or boiled is great too as long as the yolk is nice and runny.

I am glad that lots of research keeps indicating that they are good for you.

Here is another:

Eggs used to get a bad rap for their cholesterol content, which many thought led to a build up of cholesterol in the blood. That's not necessarily true. Saturated fats and trans fats are a bigger concern than the cholesterol in eggs. However, old beliefs die hard, so here's another piece of evidence. In this Univ. of Connecticut study, researchers put a group of young, unfit subjects on a 6-week endurance training program. One group of subjects ate 12 eggs a week as part of their diet; the other group ate none. After 6 weeks, both groups had the same improved profile in the blood cholesterol levels. Their cholesterol markers moved 10 to 20 percent in "good" directions. The eggs had no effect. Source: The Journal Of Nutritional Biochemistry


Habitual consumption of eggs does not alter the beneficial effects of endurance training on plasma lipids and lipoprotein metabolism in untrained men and women.

Changes in plasma lipid and apolipoprotein profiles were evaluated in 12 healthy, unfit subjects (VO(2peak) 39.1+/-2.8 ml.kg(-1).min(-1); 5 women, 7 men) at baseline and following endurance exercise training. The exercise protocol consisted of a 6-week endurance exercise training program (4-5 days week(-1); 60 min.session(-1); >/=65% HR(max)). Subjects were randomly assigned to consume an egg- (n=6; 12 eggs.week(-1)) or no-egg (n=6; 0 eggs.week(-1))-based, eucaloric, standardized diet for 8 weeks. Both diets were macronutrient balanced [60% carbohydrate, 30% fat, 10% protein (0.8 g.kg(-1).day(-1))] and individually designed for weight maintenance. Plasma lipids were measured twice within the same week at baseline and following exercise training. At baseline, subjects were normolipidemic with values of 163.9+/-41.8, 84.8+/-36.7, 60.6+/-15.4 and 93.1+/-52 mg dl(-1) for total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol and HDL cholesterol and triglyceride concentrations, respectively. A two-way ANOVA was used to analyze diet and exercise effects and interactions. In both groups, endurance exercise training resulted in a significant 10% increase in HDL-C (P<.05), a 19% decrease in Apo B concentrations (P<.05) and reductions in plasma CETP activity (P<.05). Plasma LDL-C decreased by 21% (P=.06). No main effects of diet or interactions with plasma lipids or Apo B concentrations were observed. These data demonstrate that endurance training improved the plasma lipid profiles of previously unfit, normolipidemic subjects independent of dietary cholesterol intake from eggs.

3 comments:

Debs said...

I sent this to my friend/former roommate who used to eschew egg yolks because of a family history of cholesterol. She wrote me back to say I've been a good influence on her and she's no longer avoiding eggs or good fats. Hooray!

Food Is Love

Anonymous said...

"Saturated fats and trans fats are a bigger concern than the cholesterol in eggs...." Why the concern about fat saturation? Is it not true that before the body can burn fat, it has to saturate it? And, doesn't saturated fat burn "cleaner" than unsaturated sources? Again, looking at a paleo model, it appears the saturated fat would be most preferable; others would be okay in a pinch. Your thoughts on this?

A great site! Cheers! Brad

Chris said...

Hi Brad - I totally agree with you that saturated fats are good and healthy. I gave the quote in full from which I had found the study but perhaps should have noted that their point about saturated fat was not one that I would endorse.....

Cheers