Eggs – Yes or No ?
Jul 26th, 2010 by sandalwood
Are Eggs OK for the Diabetic Menu?
We hear opposing views on whether to include eggs in our daily diet because they are high in cholesterol and for some that’s a problem since high cholesterol is associated with a higher risk of heart disease people with diabetes are already at a higher risk of heart disease.
The American Diabetes Association says “Yes”
The ADA’s publication 101 tips on Nutrition for People with Diabetes, tells us that we don’t need to eliminate eggs from our diet but at the same time we should follow the American Heart Association’s guidelines for diabetics and heart patients saying that it is better to eat a small or medium egg rather than a large one. A medium egg has about 185 milligrams of cholesterol and a large egg has about 215 milligrams of cholesterol.
A Mayo Clinic newsletter mentions that you should limit your total dietary cholesterol intake to less than 200 mg daily if you have diabetes, cardiovascular disease or existing high levels of LDL, often called the bad form of cholesterol. For non-diabetics and otherwise healthy adults the recommended maximum daily amount is 300 mg.
But eggs are a good source of high quality protein and are rich in nutrients. One egg provides over 10% of the recommended daily protein intake at less than 70 calories and comes with many vitamins and minerals, including vitamins A, B2, B5, B12, folate, D, choline, phosphorus and selenium, in fact, eggs contain most of the minerals that the human body requires for health.
Some eggs, from chickens fed with flax seeds, contain goodly amounts of omega-3 fatty acids that, it is claimed, may have specific health benefits related to heart disease prevention. In a study from Canada, reported in the journal Food Research International (Vol. 39, pp. 910-916), the author wrote, in part, that: “Egg products can serve as ideal functional foods for the dietary delivery of the cardio-protective omega-3 fatty acids (EPA/DHA).
The product label on the carton of eggs in my refrigerator specifies that a large omega egg contains 195 mg of cholesterol, which is within the Mayo Clinic recommendation.
And for healthy adults
In a newspaper column of March 2008, under the headline: “Unscrambling the Myths of Eggs and Cholesterol” by Samara Felesky-Hunt, for Canwest News Sevices, part of a Canadian news network, it was stated that:
“Research conducted by the Harvard School of Public Health, showed the dietary cholesterol in eggs does not have a negative effect on blood cholesterol levels of healthy people. This and numerous other studies have shown there is no link between eating eggs and a higher risk of heart disease or stroke for healthy adults. Some recent studies have even shown that HDL (good) cholesterol increased when people ate an egg-supplemented diet.”
I believe the Harvard study followed 100,000 men and women.
From a different source, I also read that a 2007 study, published in the Medical Science Monitor, had looked at 10,000 people and produced the same results. And in a publication of the British Nutrition Foundation it was stated that dietary cholesterol in foods such as eggs had only a minor effect on cholesterol levels.
Regarding Eggs and Cholesterol
It is important to note that saturated fat has more significant negative effects on your blood cholesterol levels than does the cholesterol content of eggs.
