Going to work on an egg is safe

Britain, February 11: Researchers at Surrey university confirmed that eggs have very "insignificant" affect on cholesterol levels in human body, suggesting that people can consume eggs fearlessly.

In an effort to liberate people from "the ingrained misconception" that associates eggs with elevated cholesterol levels in the blood, researchers declared that people can get back to eggs normally again.

According to some previous studies, an egg a day can lead to premature deaths in both men and women and was associated with high cardiacdefine disease risk for women compared to those who had just one or two eggs per week.

Eggs have been embroiled in controversies for long for being associated with heightened cholesterol levels leading to improper heart function and the egg industry bore the brunt of this blow and had to struggle to convince people that eggs are healthy and nutritious.

Study members Dr Bruce Griffin and Juliet Gray from centre for nutrition and food safety at Surrey University explained that saturated fats are much more dangerous to heart functions than an egg. Over a period of 30 years, Dr Griffin has analysed 30 egg studies to conclude that eggs "have no clinically significant impact on heart disease or cholesterol levels."

Griffin, who is a professor of nutritional metabolism, said: "Indeed they can be encouraged to include them in a healthy diet as they are one of nature's most nutritionally dense foods. It is safe to go to work on an egg."

"Eggs are a contentious and emotive subject, but last week's study does contain a lot of statistical anomalies and inconsistencies. For most people consumption is fine," he added.

Gray and Griffin worked to revive the yesteryear advertising campaign - 'Go to Work on an Egg', commenting that recent findings completely contradict any health risk. This is indeed good news for the egg industry too.

British Egg Information Service nutritionist, Cath MacDonald, said, "Eggs should now move from a food that is restricted to one that is proactively recommended as part of a healthy diet."

But British Egg Information Service (BEIS) reported that as many as 45 percent of people still think that their egg consumption should be limited.

Sceptics, including the British Egg Information Service, found that previous studies involved men with higher egg-intake, who were older, less active, smoked cigarettes and had a tendency towards hypertension and diabetes than those with a lower egg intake.

"Eating too many eggs is only a worry if you've been diagnosed as a hyper-responder to cholesterol," explained Dr Griffin. "This means you need to watch your saturated fat intake and avoid eating lots of eggs, but everyone else can eat them without fear."

Claire Williamson, a nutrition scientist from British Nutrition Foundation, quoted: "Eggs are high in protein, low in calories - a large egg contains only 75 calories and 5g of fat - and are full of vitamins A, B and D."

The reviewed findings, published in the British Nutrition Foundation's Nutrition Bulletin, will soon appear in the European Journal Of Nutrition.