Does eating eggs cause more harm than good? I have no idea if I can, or should, include them in my diet, and how I should prepare them and how many I should eat.
The actual facts surrounding eggs and cholesterol have become scrambled over almost half a century of turning up the heat on one of our best, and according to the World Health Organisation (fake news!), the most digestible sources of complete protein.
We all know that not all eggs are bought equal. Those run-of-the-mill, flimsy shelled, feather-tasting, mass factory-farmed eggs are horrible, while the free range variety can become quite costly and we have to believe they’re really free range.
And so, this year I set out to build a little sustainable set-up. We already had all the vegetables, including morogo (amaranth), and so I built an adjoining hen coop and run. Yes, Cape Town readers, we can do these kinds of things in the failed city up north. My vegetable garden and chicken compound would probably fetch a R30,000 monthly rental (without parking) on the Atlantic seaboard.
My first lesson is that it will take a long, long time to see any return on investment. The first comment I got when revealing my new venture was: “Just be careful with your cholesterol and don’t eat too many eggs.”
Traditionalists tell us one large egg contains 186mg of cholesterol and to keep cardiovascular risks down, we should aim to consume less than 300mg a day. Eat two eggs a day and, according to this guideline, you’re sending in an application for a heart attack at worst, and dangerous cholesterol levels at best. Bear with me Banters, we know not everyone “believes” in cholesterol and its link to heart disease.
On the other hand, other scientists are telling us that for most people, what we eat as cholesterol doesn’t add to the cholesterol our bodies produce beyond a transient spike. Rather, we’re told, it’s saturated fat that increases cholesterol. Over and above this, they differentiate between good (HDL) and bad (LDL) cholesterol and say the former is improved by eating eggs.
This fight has been going on for decades. Here is an excerpt from a 1973 New York Times article titled: “The egg falls victim to cholesterol fears, industry ads defend it”.
“To restore the egg to its once lofty place in the American diet, the egg industry has begun an advertising campaign that contends ‘there is absolutely no scientific evidence that eating eggs in any way increases the risk of heart disease.’ Leading authorities on heart diseases and cholesterol have called the ads ‘irresponsible’, ‘inaccurate’ and a ‘gross distortion of the facts’.”
A BBC article, updated in 2024, titled “The truth about eggs” is a fascinating read and we just don’t have enough space in this column to pit the pros and cons against each other. It’s a case of: you raise an anti-egg king and I’ll raise a pro-egg ace.
Though, to be fair, the pro-egg crowd finally appears to be winning. The author writes: “Researchers haven’t definitively linked consumption of cholesterol to an increased risk of cardiovascular disease. As a result, US dietary guidelines no longer have a cholesterol restriction; nor does the UK. Instead, emphasis is placed on limiting how much saturated fat we consume, which can increase the risk of developing cardiovascular disease.
“While researchers are a long way from understanding why eggs affect us differently, the vast majority of recent research suggests they pose no risk to our health, and are much more likely to provide health benefits.”
We’ve spoken about cholesterol and that eggs are an easily digestible, complete protein. They also provide vitamins D, B12 and A, choline, antioxidants lutein and zeaxanthin, iron, zinc, omega-3 fatty acids, folate, phosphorus, probably much more, and a healthy dose of lekker.
There’s far more to an egg than the cholesterol in the yoke, and preparing them boiled or poached, with a soft yoke, is said to preserve all of mother nature’s goodness. Whether you eat them, and how many, is entirely up to you, just spare a thought for the millions of feathered ladies stuck in wire cages, pumping out eggs on a factory conveyor belt.
If you are able, and want, to eat eggs, The Water Cooler absolutely supports enjoying the nutrient-rich gifts of happy, healthy, unimprisoned and well-fed hens.
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