Why Eggs Prevent Heart Disease
Filed under: Nutrition
I know that I have often written about the greatness of eggs, and many of my more enlightened readers actually take this information to heart and consume the whole thing on a regular basis.
Unfortunately I know that there are still many people who are resistant to make that leap of faith, still believing that the cholesterol in the eggs is going to give them heart disease, and failing to realize that not only does our body have a negative feedback system where when you consume cholesterol you simply produce less, but whole eggs actually contain substances that substantially decrease your risk of heart disease.
I actually showed just a snippet of data that disproved the idea that dietary cholesterol contributes to blood cholesterol right here.
Eggs are a good source of tons of vitamins, minerals and antioxidants. They contain the cancer-fighting selenium, thyroid-regulating iodine, perfect protein, energy-boosting B vitamins, antioxidants lutein, zeaxanthin and vitamin A for eye health, iron, as well as being one of the few food sources of the incredible vitamin D. The well-produced kind also contain significant amounts of heart-healthy omega-3′s.
Even with that impressive list, one of the best components of eggs is a compound called choline. It is similar to the B vitamins, and has some absolutely amazing benefits.
Our bodies can make some choline, but not nearly enough to make up for an insufficient dietary intake, and choline deficiency can also cause a deficiency in the vital B vitamin folic acid. Since more than 90% of Americans are deficient in choline, this is a problem.
Choline is a key component to cell membranes, as their flexibility and integrity depend on it. In fact there are two molecules that make up a large percentage of the brain called phosphatidylcholine and sphingomyelin. These two molecules are down-stream by-products of choline, and without a sufficient supply of choline they are markedly less abundant, and our brain health and function is diminished.
Phosphatidylcholine also increases the solubility of cholesterol, lowers cholesterol levels by removing it and excess fat from tissue deposits, especially from the liver, and it also inhibits platelet aggregation.
Another down-stream by-product of choline is acetylcholine. Acetylcholine is a neurotransmitter that is the body’s primary chemical messenger to send messages between nerves and muscles.
That sounds like some good stuff right? Well there is a lot more. The choline in eggs has been specifically shown to reduce inflammation, and as we know inflammation plays an enormous role in the development of heart disease and many other diseases such as osteoporosis, cognitive impairment and Alzheimer’s, as well as type-2 diabetes.
A study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition showed that people whose diet had the highest intake of choline (>310mg/day) had inflammatory marker levels at least 20% lower than people whose diets had the lowest intakes (<250mg/day).
- 22% lower concentrations of C-reactive protein
- 26% lower concentrations of interleukin-6
- 6% lower concentrations of tumor necrosis factor alpha
Now do we see why eggs do not cause heart disease? To add even more, choline has also been shown to convert the inflammatory and blood vessel-damaging homocysteine into more benign substances.
Another worrisome issue is the fact that pregnant women do not get nearly enough choline, and pre-natal vitamins are too low in this critical component (though that is changing). Choline is essential for proper brain and memory development in the fetus.
Each egg yolk contains an average of 125mg of choline, and 315mg of phosphatidylcholine. Now I have shown before how pastured eggs are much more nutrient dense than their conventionally raised counterparts, so in my mind it stands to reason that pastured eggs will also contain significantly more choline as well.
Before we wrap this up, and just in case you weren’t yet convinced, there was another article published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition where researchers had 54 children aged 8-12 years consume 2 whole eggs daily for a month. Not only did their ratio of total LDL to HDL not change (so the cholesterol in the eggs had no effect on the amount of their blood cholesterol), but the size of their LDL particles did change.
15% of these children shifted from the atherogenic pattern B to the benign pattern A, meaning the LDL particles shifted from the small and dense type, to the large and fluffy type after just one month of eating eggs, and all of the subjects actually saw an increase in large, fluffy LDL and a decrease in small, dense LDL. This is a big deal, as egg consumption significantly decreased their heart disease risk from a cholesterol standpoint, not too mention most likely decreased their inflammatory markers, as noted above.
I hope I have made clear how incredibly nutritious whole eggs are for you, so go ahead and enjoy a few every morning, as your eyes, brain, heart, liver and more will thank you. This also means you can stop the non-sense of those egg white omelets, which are ridiculous.
More reading on the greatness of whole eggs
The Incredible Edible Pastured Egg
Check out the BSP Training & Nutrition Newsletter!
You will get immediate access to:
- Weekly updates and exclusive content.
- The 20-page report "The Truth About Saturated Fat & Cholesterol."
- Become more awesome!
Posted on September 22nd, 2010 by Brian St. Pierre
28 Comments
September 22nd, 2010 at 9:20 am
About how much cholin should one consume optimally?
September 22nd, 2010 at 9:34 am
Johan,
The Adequate Intake for adult men is 550mg/day, and for women 425mg/day (though up to 550mg/day for pregnant or lactating women).
The Tolerable Upper Limit has been set at 3500mg/day, so you definitely do not want to go that high, though that would never happen from whole food consumption, only supplementation. That would require 28 whole eggs per day!
If you consume 3-5 whole eggs every morning that is 375-625mg right there (at least, probably a little more if they are pastured eggs), and there are other food sources that contribute to your daily intake (like beef liver, beef, pork chops, cauliflower, navy beans, almonds and peanut butter).
September 22nd, 2010 at 10:00 am
Thanks a lot for the reply, and for the blog in general
Been a while since I had eggs as a part of my diet, for no particular reason. One more reason to throw in 4-5 eggs a day again!
September 22nd, 2010 at 10:41 am
Hi Brian,
I know that many people recommend whole eggs and I’ve been taking them since I was a kid (I’m only 19 years old, so that’s not a long time). However, I’ve found it tough to convince my parents and aunt that eating whole eggs will actually help reduce blood cholesterol as dietary cholesterol has no effect whatsoever on it! I’ve also read numerous articles by Mike Geary, Dr Lonnie Lowry and many other experts and trawled through many of the studies in the AJCN and shown it to them, but they either do not understand it or don’t tryst me as I’m just a teenager and they think I’m talking bro-science! However, their doctors aside them against eating the yolk because they have high cholesterol. Despite their recommendations, it’s beneficial for one to eat the yolk EVEN IF their blood cholesterol is high, right?
September 22nd, 2010 at 10:42 am
My apologies, it was “trust” and “advise”.
September 22nd, 2010 at 10:47 am
Clement,
It is an uphill battle that is for sure, but it advice based on dogma, not science.
It is definitely beneficial to eat the yolk even if their blood cholesterol is high, because eggs can help improve your cholesterol subtypes, as I showed in the article.
The best way for them to lower their cholesterol (total cholesterol does not correlate to heart disease, so it is rather irrelevant, but anyway) is to lose weight, eat less trans fats and refined carbs and improve the quality of their food intake.
September 22nd, 2010 at 1:24 pm
I’m delighted to see a nutritionist refer to egg-white ommlettes as ‘ridiculous’. A lot will still just circle around it and recommend something like a 2 full, 4 albumen concoction, on account of the recent growing evidence.
We spend so much energy thinking about the caveman’s diet and lifestyle – there’s no way he’d throw away a dodo or archaeoptrex egg in a million years. He’d eat that bird out of nest and home til they’re extinct. Even today they don’t waste food in countries like Thailand, where spiders have to watch their step, lest a human gobble them up. I really think it’s a sin to waste food, and maybe if people knew more about the items they are firing down their gullets, we wouldn’t have this culture of excess, by which I mean excess adipose tissue.
September 22nd, 2010 at 5:21 pm
nice article. any chance you could post links to those studies you mentioned? especially if you could find the study showing that 90% of Americans are deficient in choline. that’s a pretty startling statistic
September 22nd, 2010 at 8:51 pm
Hooch turner,
I couldn’t agree more, and thank you for the kind words on Monday’s blog, much appreciated.
Zach,
Here is the choline deficient study, it is based on NHANES data – http://www.fasebj.org/cgi/content/meeting_abstract/21/6/LB46-c?maxtoshow=&hits=10&RESULTFORMAT=&fulltext=choline&searchid=1&FIRSTINDEX=0&volume=21&issue=6&resourcetype=HWCIT
Here is the inflammatory markers – http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/content/abstract/87/2/424
Here is the kids and their improved LDL subtypes -
http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/content/full/80/4/855?maxtoshow=&hits=10&RESULTFORMAT=&fulltext=mexico+children+eggs&searchid=1&FIRSTINDEX=0&resourcetype=HWCIT
September 23rd, 2010 at 6:28 am
Brian,
I am curious about something, and given your experience working with many clients, you’d be a great source to consult……….how prevalent is the issue of sensitivity to eggs? Personally I find that if I consume no more than 2-3 of them on a very infrequent basis that I have some issues. I wish that I could eat them with greater frequncey and/or in larger amounts when I do, but I have yet to pull that off without a hitch, which unfortunately leaves me unable to take maximum advantage of their myriad benefits.
September 24th, 2010 at 11:54 am
Jeff,
In all honesty off the top of my head I can only recall maybe 2-3 people who informed me they were allergic to eggs, so the prevalence is quite small, at least from my experience.
Just because a food has lots of health benefits, if it doesn’t agree with you then the risk to reward ratio is just not there.
Another great source of choline would be beef liver, and in fact even though I have never eaten liver in my life, it is a tremendously rich source of tons of powerful nutrients.
September 27th, 2010 at 8:47 pm
[...] I love my eggs, and I just wrote what I think was one of my better blogs in a long time – Why Eggs Prevent Heart Disease – which is one of the inspirations for this post [...]
September 28th, 2010 at 7:09 am
[...] 3. I think if I hear that eggs are bad for you one more time I’m gonna go nuts! Seriously, doctors still recommend that you shouldn’t eat more than 2 eggs per week or something like that otherwise your cholesterol will go up, but honestly most of them don’t know shit about nutrition. It has been proven times and times again in the last decades that eggs (yes, including the yolk!) are good for you and they can actually help decrease your LDL levels (the bad cholesterol) and prevent heart disease. Brian St. Pierre recently wrote a very interesting blog post about that, check it out HERE. [...]
September 29th, 2010 at 9:34 pm
[...] http://brianstpierretraining.com/index.php/why-eggs-prevent-heart-disease/ [...]
October 2nd, 2010 at 1:29 pm
[...] Why Eggs Prevent Heart Disease (Brian St. Pierre) – Eggs (yes whole eggs) are good for your heart. I’ve said it. BSP has said it. He’s saying it again. With lots of science. [...]
October 28th, 2010 at 2:42 pm
[...] Why Eggs Prevent Heart Disease – This was posted a while back but eggs, specifically the yolk, seem to be a misunderstood topic. [...]
January 25th, 2011 at 10:08 am
[...] Incredible, Edible Egg”? - Dr. Johnny Bowden presenting a quick look at his take on eggs Why Eggs Prevent Heart Disease – Another look at the egg consumption and its effect on heart disease The Incredible, Edible [...]
March 3rd, 2011 at 5:59 am
[...] Why Eggs Prevent Heart Disease – this is one of my best blog posts ever in my opinion. While not a comprehensive review of the health benefits of eggs, that would go beyond the scope of this blog, it delves into several components of eggs and why the prevent heart disease. [...]
September 12th, 2011 at 2:49 pm
[...] (let’s get it boys!). Although there is nothing better than a veggie and meat omelet (click here to read about some of the undeniable value of WHOLE eggs) with a side of fruit, the next best option [...]
September 12th, 2011 at 5:32 pm
[...] (let’s get it boys!). Although there is nothing better than a veggie and meat omelet (click here to read about some of the undeniable value of WHOLE eggs) with a side of fruit, the next best option [...]
September 22nd, 2011 at 6:48 pm
[...] that dietary cholesterol has very little effect on your cholesterol levels as a whole. Check out Brian St. Pierre’s blog post on eggs for more information. Egg whites are very [...]
January 13th, 2012 at 4:01 pm
[...] antioxidant), phosphatidylcholine (a potent source of choline, which I have written more about here), as well as some fat-soluble vitamins it certainly appears to be a wonderful thing. However, in [...]
May 1st, 2012 at 4:42 pm
[...] encourage you to check out this article, written by Adam Bornstein as well as the following posts (here, here, and here) by Brian St. [...]
February 6th, 2013 at 10:38 am
[...] http://brianstpierretraining.com/index.php/why-eggs-prevent-heart-disease/ [...]
July 14th, 2013 at 6:17 am
It is never just a matter consolidate loans of time
before this financial house of cards starts to tumble, and when selecting repayments lowered, financial fatigue is
eased.
Feel free to surf to my web site: ivr supplier
December 6th, 2013 at 7:18 am
I consider, that you are not right. I am assured i can prove it. write to me in PM, we will discuss orthomol Cardio Heart attack signs
April 25th, 2016 at 10:50 am
cayeta, sin pa#&8rasalb230; arriba ya te dijeron todo!y andy: FELIZ DIA DEL LOCUTOR??? TE RECIBISTE? MMM..el unico q banco ahi es berta…el pograma es bastante pobre, lo mas flojo q tiene la metro, una gran radio! saludos chicos.
April 30th, 2016 at 3:58 am
You have got interesting content here. Your site can go viral, you need some initial
traffic only. How to get initial traffic? Search google for:
Marihhu’s myblog