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Eggs can be part of a heart-smart diet.
There’s one more reason to put eggs back on the menu.
Researchers in Canada have published evidence that eggs, often frowned upon because of their cholesterol content, may actually reduce a major risk factor in heart disease: high blood pressure.
In fact, they found that eggs may be just as effective in bringing down high blood pressure as ACE-inhibiting prescription drugs.
And it gets even tastier. The study, published this week in the American Chemical Association’s Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, found that eggs have more ACE-like inhibiting activity when they are fried than when they are boiled.
The researchers, Jianping Wu and Kaustav Majumber, discovered that the stomach and small intestines respond to eggs by producing proteins that react in the body in a manner similar to blood pressure medication.
The researchers made their discovery in a laboratory setting and said it will take human studies to determine just how effective these proteins can be. But it is one more step in vindicating the much-maligned egg.
Why eggs don’t raise cholesterol
The study notes that egg consumption has decreased during the last 40 years amid concerns about cholesterol, even though recent studies found that eating eggs does not raise cholesterol in people with normal cholesterol counts.
The theory that eggs raise blood cholesterol was discredited several years ago by studies in Israel and Yale University.
In the Yale studies, researchers had adults with normal cholesterol eat eggs daily for 9 weeks. In Israel, one to three eggs were given to people with moderately high cholesterol for 9 weeks. Neither group showed a spike in cholesterol levels as a result of eating the eggs.
The researchers theorize that the cholesterol in eggs has minimal bioactivity in the body because eggs are naturally low in saturated fat.
Comments
It`s enough to make people`s head spin. I have always thought that eggs were safe. For 4 weeks I will be maintaining a very nutritional diet and eggs are certainly on the menu for breakfast most of those days.
Thank you for the article and the scientific data to back it up.
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