Incidence of cardiovascular diseases is on the rise globally. Taking care of heart health is more important than ever. What you eat has a crucial impact on heart health. Whether eggs are good for the heart or not has been a heated debate for so long.
So, should you eat eggs to boost heart health? According to a study, eating eggs can indeed improve heart health.
A study published in the eLife journal in 2022 found that eating eggs can boost the number of heart-healthy metabolites in the blood. This could partially explain the protective effect of egg consumption on cardiovascular disease when consumed in moderation.
Eggs are an excellent source of dietary cholesterol. They also contain a variety of essential nutrients. Similar to the debate, there is conflicting evidence on whether eggs are good or bad for heart health. A 2018 study based on half a million adults in China found that people who ate one egg daily had a substantially lower risk of heart disease and stroke than those who consumed it less frequently. The findings of the study are published in the journal Heart.
To understand if egg consumption improves the markers of cardiovascular health in the blood, the researchers carried out a population-based study.
“Few studies have looked at the role that plasma cholesterol metabolism plays in the association between egg consumption and the risk of cardiovascular diseases, so we wanted to help address this gap,” first author Lang Pan, MSc, at the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Peking University, Beijing, China, explained.
The researchers studied 4,778 people from the China Kadoorie Biobank, of which 3,401 had cardiovascular disease and 1,377 didn’t. Using targeted nuclear magnetic resonance, they measured the 225 blood metabolites in the plasma samples taken. Of these metabolites, they identified 24 that were associated with self-reported levels of egg consumption.
The findings
They found that people who consumed eggs in moderation had higher levels of a protein in their blood called apolipoprotein A1, which is a building block of high-density lipoprotein (HDL), also known as ‘good lipoprotein’.
They had larger HDL molecules in their blood, which help clear cholesterol from the blood vessels. These protect against blockages that can lead to heart attacks and strokes.
They identified 14 metabolites that are linked to heart disease. They found that participants who ate fewer eggs had lower levels of beneficial metabolites and higher levels of harmful ones in their blood, compared to those who ate eggs more regularly.
Together, our results provide a potential explanation for how eating a moderate amount of eggs can help protect against heart disease. More studies are needed to verify the causal roles that lipid metabolites play in the association between egg consumption and the risk of cardiovascular disease,” Canqing Yu, author and associate professor at the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Peking University, said.
“This study may also have implications for Chinese national dietary guidelines. Current health guidelines in China suggest eating one egg a day, but data indicate that the average consumption is lower than this. Our work highlights the need for more strategies to encourage moderate egg consumption among the population, to help lower the overall risk of cardiovascular disease,” senior author Liming Li, Boya Distinguished Professor at the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Peking University, added.
