Cholesterol in Eggs

Eggs: Some Food for Thought

by Sharon Gaughan, PCLF Education Program Director

As much as I love eating farm-fresh eggs, I have tended to limit my egg consumption because of concerns about cholesterol.  Perhaps you have, as well.

But I’ve been reading Storey’s Guide to Raising Chickens by Gail Damerow (Second Edition, 2010), and her chapter called “Eggs for Eating” has helped me to rethink some of those concerns.  Damerow feels that we’ve been scared away from eating eggs by effective “media scare tactics” concerning cholesterol.

 

Damerow goes on to explain that the amount of cholesterol in our bodies is regulated by our liver.  Most of that cholesterol has actually been manufactured within our bodies.  The cholesterol in the foods we eat can indeed increase our blood cholesterol, however our bodies can usually compensate for this by then either producing less cholesterol or excreting more.  Some people have better cholesterol-controlling mechanisms than others, so whether or not eating eggs will increase cholesterol in a person’s body depends in large part on how well those mechanisms are functioning.

She also points out that “saturated fat in the diet is the greater culprit in increasing blood cholesterol.  Many foods that contain cholesterol are high in saturated fat.  An egg is the rare exception – it is high in cholesterol but contains little saturated fat” (p. 228).

 

Damerow cites a related study and a long-term review. “A study reported in Medical Science Monitor showed that eating one or more eggs a day does not increase the risk of heart disease or stroke among healthy adults but may decrease blood pressure.  And a review of 30 years of cholesterol research published in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition concluded that eating eggs has little relationship to high blood cholesterol or the incidence of heart disease” (p. 228).

Chances are you’ll find other sources that disagree with Damerow, but I found this to be some “egg-cellent” food for thought and worth sharing.