Regardless of confusing media messages, the facts remain. Egg consumption has been linked to heart disease and stroke, type 2 diabetes, cancer, and food poisoning. Cutting eggs out of your diet can only benefit your health so why wait?
Here’s what you need to know about eggs:
➲ Eggs contain saturated fat and cholesterol - there are very good reasons to avoid these fats because they do increase your risk of heart disease.
➲ Eating eggs can have a similar effect on blood vessels as smoking - regularly eating egg yolks contributes to an increased build-up of arterial plaques (cholesterol deposits on the inside of artery walls) which are a serious risk factor for stroke and heart attack.
➲ Cooking eggs results in cholesterol by-products that increase the risk of heart disease, maybe toxic to body cells, and cause DNA damage.
➲ Eggs contain a substance called choline - they are by far the richest dietary source. Too much choline has been linked to ovarian and prostate cancer and heart disease.
➲ One of the by-products of choline (trimethylamine-N-oxide - TMAO) contributes to the build-up of arterial plaques, promoting heart disease. The higher the levels of TMAO, the higher risk of stroke and heart attack.
➲ The amount of cholesterol in just one egg can exceed the maximum recommended daily amount - a single large egg yolk contains about 275 milligrams whilst people at risk of cardiovascular disease are advised not to eat more than 200 milligrams.
➲ Eating an egg a day doubles your risk of type 2 diabetes – mostly due to the cholesterol content.
➲ Eggs carry the risk of salmonella food poisoning – despite the vaccination of chickens, eggs still pose a serious risk.
➲ Eggs can also carry other dangerous bacteria such as Listeria and Campylobacter.
➲ Laying hens treated with drugs and given feed containing pesticides can produce contaminated eggs. Traces of many of these potentially toxic pollutants are usually present even in free-range and organic eggs.
➲ There’s a strong link between egg consumption and ovarian cancer – one or two eggs a week increase the risk by 70 percent, more than two and it rises to 80 percent!
➲ Prostate cancer is equally associated with egg consumption – more than two eggs a week increase the risk by 80 percent!