I’ve always loved eggs – as a kid, sunny-side-up eggs were my favorite part of the breakfast plate. In high school, I discovered the magic of overeasy eggs on dark rye toast and mayo. In college, I went through a phase where my nightly dinner was at least 6-8 eggs, fried in a pan with some butter and deli meat (this may have been excessive). Now, I take three boiled eggs to work with me most days.
I think this is fine – I am actually pretty convinced that eggs are a very important part of a healthy person’s diet. This blog post is a few reasons why.
Nutrients
Eggs are one of the best sources of choline, which is super important for brain function and healthy cell membranes. Most people are actually probably not getting enough choline. The choline in eggs is mostly in the yolk, so you have to eat the whole egg to get it. Other sources include organ meats, fish, shiitake mushrooms, and soybeans (super interesting) – but eggs seem to be one of the most effective in terms of efficiency. Eggs also contain selenium (important for reproduction and metabolism) and B vitamins (important for so many things!!!).
Quick note on protein – every living thing contains proteins, which build muscles and bones and help make hormones and enzymes. The protein in every living organism is made up of 20 amino acids. Eleven of these are produced in your body, and the other nine are up to you to find in your food.
Eggs are a complete protein source, which means they contain all nine “essential” amino acids, in addition to all the good stuff listed above.
Taking a step back, eggs are meant to contain all of the ingredients for potential life – that is the point of an egg. It makes sense that it would be incredibly healthful as a part of regular diet!
Cholesterol
Egg yolks contain dietary cholesterol, which is why they have been labelled unhealthy – but it seems like the evidence for eggs being unhealthy is moot at best. Nutritional studies are unbelievably difficult because often they are based on surveys – which may only be taken one time during the entire period of the study – like this 2024 study which claims every half egg contributes to all-cause mortality, but used a one-time survey and extrapolated it to lifetime outcomes over the following 30 years. Not to fight fire with fire, but I think it’s important to highlight some examples of studies that have found eggs to be healthful.
Eggs have been observed to increase levels of “good cholesterol” (HDL), in comparison with yolk-free substitutes – this study is on a smaller sample size, but results were statistically significant. The egg group also saw higher levels of “bad cholesterol” (LDL), but the change in HDL was larger, and there is some evidence that the ratio might be a more important risk factor for cardiovascular disease.
A new study published in 2024 tried to isolate the impact of egg consumption on blood cholesterol by studying adults with healthy diets. This study found that in adults who also consume more fish and dietary fiber, eggs resulted in lower LDL cholesterol and a lower LDL:HDL ratio.
In the last few years, the scientific community seems to have generally agreed that dietary cholesterol has a tenuous link to blood cholesterol. The 2015-2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans (did you know the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services published dietary guidelines every 5 years? I did not) removed its recommendation on dietary cholesterol intake of setting a limit to the maximum intake of 300 mg/day cholesterol. Some attention has been refocused on how saturated fats and sugars might impact cholesterol levels – this review is super interesting for that topic.
More Thoughts
Unfortunately, there is not a lot of research out there on people who eat three eggs a day : ) so it’s difficult for me to tell you that my dietary choices are 100% backed by rigorous science.
Dietary science is one of those fields where we’ll probably never get a perfectly “scientific” answer to any question. To apply scientific principles to our lives in order to optimize them, we need to combine results from rigorous, unbiased (not-paid-for), and reasonable scientific experiments with common sense. We can apply common sense and logical reasoning to the facts we do know, and to observed experience.
My personal experience is that eggs make me feel great, and given that my diet is very low in processed foods, high in fish, and somewhat-high in fiber, I feel pretty confident saying that my egg consumption is not going to negatively impact my health.
I think this is also a good place to point out that the quality of the eggs probably matters. Ideally, I would own a chicken coop where the chickens are loved, and they eat grass and bugs, and they forage outside year-round. Since I don’t have indefinite resources, I settle for the highest shelf of eggs at Whole Foods that doesn’t make my wallet cry.
I guess I’ll report back on whether I have any serious health issues in twenty years.
Sources & Further Reading
- Choline Fact Sheet for Consumers – https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/Choline-Consumer/#:~:text=Your%20brain%20and%20nervous%20system,from%20the%20food%20you%20eat.
- Nutrition Science Is Broken. This New Egg Study Shows Why. – by Timothy F Kirn in 2019 – https://undark.org/2019/07/18/science-of-eggs/
- The Fifty Year Rehabilitation of the Egg – published in 2015 – https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4632449/
- Whole egg consumption improves lipoprotein profiles and insulin sensitivity to a greater extent than yolk-free egg substitute in individuals with metabolic syndrome – published in 2012 – https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23021013/
- Egg intake improves carotenoid status by increasing plasma HDL cholesterol in adults with metabolic syndrome – https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23128450/
- Eggs and a Fiber-Rich Diet Are Beneficially Associated with Lipid Levels in Framingham Offspring Study Adults – published in 2024 – https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38500805/
- Dietary cholesterol in diets – https://www.heart.org/en/news/2023/08/25/heres-the-latest-on-dietary-cholesterol-and-how-it-fits-in-with-a-healthy-diet
- Dietary Cholesterol and the Lack of Evidence in Cardiovascular Disease – published in 2018 – https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6024687/
- Influence of total sugar intake on metabolic blood markers at 8 years of age in the Childhood Obesity Project – published May 2020 – https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7867537/
- The Evidence for Saturated Fat and for Sugar Related to Coronary Heart Disease – published in 2015 – https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4856550/
- Dietary Guidelines for Americans – https://health.gov/our-work/nutrition-physical-activity/dietary-guidelines/previous-dietary-guidelines/2015
- Egg timeline … wacky website – https://www.foodtimeline.org/foodeggs.html