The truth behind egg yolk being bad for your health

Eggs are an excellent and cheap source of protein; therefore weight lifters eat it almost every day. But they don’t usually eat egg yolk and just stick to egg whites. The reason for that they think it’s unhealthy, and can cause many medical issues. Are they?

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Well, let’s see first where this idea came from…

In 1961, the American Heart Association and many other international health organizations recommended limiting dietary cholesterol as it might lead to higher risk of heart diseases and diabetes.

Since the egg yolk contains high amount of cholesterol and egg white contains high amount of protein, the worldwide whole egg and egg yolk consumption decreased significantly. Many people have replaced whole eggs with cholesterol-free eggs or egg white products that were promoted as a healthier option.

Ok, now you are convinced that egg yolk is bad, right?

Wrong!!

Here is the truth…

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Eggs and heart diseases

Whole eggs and egg yolk are undeniably high in cholesterol. In fact, they’re the major source of cholesterol in most people’s diets.

Only two large whole eggs (100 grams) contain about 422 mg of cholesterol, which is higher than ground beef that contains only 88mg of cholesterol.

In the past, the recommended maximum daily intake of cholesterol was 300 mg per day. It was even lower for people with heart disease.

Now, the US Dietary Guidelines released in January 2016 did not specify an upper daily limit for dietary cholesterol based on the latest research.

The reason behind this is they found that cholesterol isn’t a bad substance. In fact, it’s important for many processes in our bodies, including:

Production of vitamin D.
Production of steroid hormones like estrogen, progesterone and testosterone.
Production of bile acids, which help digest fat.

Therefore, the liver produces cholesterol in large amounts every day. And when you eat foods that contains high amount of cholesterol such as egg yolk, the liver produces less cholesterol to create a balance and keep your blood levels of cholesterol the same.

Another reason that eggs don’t affect your cholesterol levels is it increases the HDL (good cholesterol), while LDL (bad cholesterol) tends to stay the same.

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These theories were proven by many recent studies…

Some studies showed that eating 1–2 whole eggs per day doesn’t seem to change cholesterol levels or heart disease risk factors.

Another review of 17 observational studies with a total of 263,938 people found no association between egg consumption and heart disease or stroke.

Research also suggests that eating eggs on a regular basis may be safe for people who already have heart disease.

A study followed 32 people with heart disease. They experienced no negative effects on heart health after consuming 2 whole eggs every day for 12 weeks.

Long story short, Studies have shown the opposite of the old myth about eggs increasing cholesterol levels and causing heart diseases. It actually might have beneficial effects on heart disease risk.

But, what about the risk of diabetes?

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Eggs and diabetes

We don’t know yet for sure the effect of eating whole eggs and egg yolk on a diabetic or pre-diabetic person because there are conflicting researches on egg consumption and the risk of type 2 diabetes.

Some observational studies show an increased risk of type 2 diabetes, while other controlled trials show an improvement in various health markers related to diabetes.

A review of two observational studies involving more than 50,000 adults found that those consuming at least one egg daily were more likely to develop type 2 diabetes than people who ate less than one egg per week.

However, it’s important to keep in mind that these are observational studies based on self-reported food intake without knowing what other foods they have eaten, how much exercise they have done or what other risk factors they had in the first place.

These types of studies cannot prove that the eggs caused anything as They only show an association between egg consumption and an increased likelihood of developing diabetes.

On the other hand, there are controlled studies have found that eating eggs along with a healthy diet may benefit people with diabetes.

In one study, people with diabetes who consumed a high-protein, high-cholesterol diet containing 2 eggs per day experienced reductions in fasting blood sugar, insulin and blood pressure, along with an increase in HDL cholesterol.

This wasn’t the only study, other studies link egg consumption with improvements in insulin sensitivity and reduced inflammation in people with pre-diabetes and diabetes.

Finally, after reading all these studies, I can tell you for sure that eating whole eggs and egg yolk in a moderate consumption won’t cause any harm as long as you are an average healthy person without any pre-existed medical issue.

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