How many eggs should a person consume a day?

Eggs

This post was originally published on June 21, 2006. It has been updated twice since then.

First they were good for you. Then they were bad. Then they were good again. Trying to keep up with the ‘experts’ is a dizzying game sometimes! Still, when my mother expressed concern over my recent habit of consuming an egg a day I decided to find out what the most recent consensus is.

Up until 2006, when this post was first written, the general consensus appeared to be that egg consumption should not surpass 3 to 4 times a week.

From a no longer available post on Yahoo!Health:

Q: Should a person avoid eating eggs entirely?

A: Health experts advise limiting cholesterol intake to 300 milligrams or less daily. One large whole egg yolk contains about 215 milligrams of cholesterol. The American Heart Association recommends limiting egg yolk consumption to three to four times weekly and focusing on the total diet instead of just one food. The cholesterol in eggs is found in the yolk portion, so you can use as many egg whites as you want. Eggs contain B vitamins, iron and other minerals and are a good source of high-quality protein.

Still, even then there was some wiggle room. The American Heart Association’s clarification on recommended egg consumption guidelines states that an egg a day can be accomplished within the context of an overall low-cholesterol diet.
“In order to fit an egg a day into a healthy diet, an individual needs to be conscious of dietary cholesterol from other sources, including baked goods. Individuals need to make choices in the context of their total diet, which should be low in saturated fats, and abundant in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, low-fat dairy products, lean meats, poultry and fish”

This latter finding seems to be in keeping with a 2010 British study which also found that an egg a day may actually be good for you.

Excerpt:

A paper to be published soon in the British Nutrition Foundation’s Nutrition Bulletin has found that cholesterol in eggs has only a small and clinically insignificant effect on blood cholesterol. While people with high blood cholesterol are at increased risk of heart disease, only a third of the cholesterol in the body is attributed to diet.

Other factors linked to high cholesterol levels are smoking, being overweight and lack of exercise, and the main culprit from food is saturated fat, not cholesterol found in eggs.

Read the entire article here

So for all the visitors who reach this site by searching for “how many eggs should you eat?”, there you have it! Eggs can be a regular part of a well-balanced diet and lifestyle plan. Eat up!