Cholesterol

It’s understandable that people are confused about the impact of egg consumption on cholesterol levels.  Afterall, for many years eggs have been labeled “off limits” to those with high cholesterol levels.  Adding to the confusion,  The American Heart Association recently stated that  daily egg consumption is possible as long as you limit other sources of dietary cholesterol consumption.  You may remember hearing about this on local and national news outlets.  So you may wonder, are eggs high in cholesterol or are they completely harmless?

The truth is that eggs are a great source of nutrition that contain about 6 grams of protein and some healthy unsaturated fats.  Another important nutrient found in eggs is choline, which has been linked with memory improvement. Also, eggs contain lutein and zeaxanthin, which may help to protect against vision loss.

Eggs do have a lot of cholesterol, however. A large egg typically contains about 212 milligrams of cholesterol. That’s quite significant considering that only foods such as animal organs, certain shellfish, and duck meat contain more. It’s important to know, though, that not all cholesterol is delivered directly to the bloodstream. In fact, only a small portion of dietary cholesterol is passed into the blood. Trans fats and saturated fats are much worse offenders to blood cholesterol levels.

Eating an egg a day should not be a problem for most, particularly when limiting consumption of trans/saturated fats. Other options include no-cholesterol egg substitute products such as Eggbeaters or egg whites (yolk removed).