Unscrambling the Egg: Are They Healthy?

Whether brightly colored and delivered by bunnies for Easter or served as part of a Passover Seder,eggs are spring holiday fixtures. But how do they fit into a healthy diet?

Advice on the subject is often confusing. After developing a bad reputation among some healthadvocates, the egg was given a bit of a reprieve in 2000 when new American Heart Associationdietary guidelines upped the limit from three or four a week to one a day.

But the guidelines were recently clarified again amid concerns that people would believe they couldeat them carte blanche. The AHA now says if you choose to eat an egg a day, you need to keep aneye on your total cholesterol intake. That's because the average large egg contributes a whopping213 milligrams of cholesterol toward the total 300 milligrams recommended daily maximum.

While essential for some physiological functions, the body tends to produce all the cholesterol itneeds. So extra cholesterol from the diet can be problematic. Having too much cholesterol is a riskfactor for heart disease -- the No. 1 killer in America.

But how does egg consumption fit into this picture -- when estimates by the American Egg Board saythat every person in the United States will eat 261 of them in one form or another this year?

Some research indicates that the egg may not contribute as much to heart disease as you may think,and others laud the egg for its numerous health benefits -- even for those watching their cholesterolintake. Moderation, as always, is the key.

Cholesterol's Only Focus T25 Icon?

The egg has become a symbol of high cholesterol, unhealthy eating habits, and by extension -- heartdisease.

"For 30 years now, [the egg] has been the icon of dietary cholesterol," acknowledges DonaldMcNamara, executive director of the Egg Nutrition Center in Washington, D.C.

But recent research suggests that eggs might not be a major contributor to heart disease after all.

One study, conducted by Harvard researchers and published in the Journal of the American MedicalAssociation in 1999 looked at the egg consumption of more than 100,000 men and women. It foundthat eating eggs on their own was unlikely to contribute to heart disease and stroke in healthyindividuals.

Moreover, the study found that people who ate eggs were more likely to engage in certain heart-unfriendly behaviors like consuming bacon, high-fat whole milk, and smoking.

"Eggs often get a bad rap, perhaps because they are often paired with [artery-clogging foods like]bacon and sausage," adds Dr. Keith-Thomas Ayoob, associate professor of pediatrics at AlbertEinstein College of Medicine in the Bronx, N.Y. and spokesperson for the American DieteticAssociation. "I'd actually rather see people skip the bacon and sausage and keep the eggs."

But the fact remains that eggs information are high in cholesterol and research has shown thatgoing over the recommended daily limit of 300 milligrams can raise LDL or "bad" cholesterol levels -- increasing heart disease risk.

"The best recommendation that we can make to the general public is that if you want to keep yourLDL low, then there should be a reasonable limitation of cholesterol intake," says Alice Lichtenstein,vice-chair of the American Medical Association's Nutrition Committee and professor of nutrition atTufts University in diet Boston, Mass.

Egg-cellent Benefits

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