Eggs named safe for cardiac risks
U.S. researchers conducted a small prospective clinical trial and concluded that weekly consumption of 12 fortified eggs does not worsen metabolic outcomes in older adults who have had a heart attack or stroke or have cardiac risk factors. The preliminary findings are prepared for presentation at the American College of Cardiology ACC Annual Scientific Sessions.24 in Atlanta and are also described in an ACC press release.
Eggs are a ubiquitous and widely available source of protein and cholesterol. When the latter was shown to be associated with the development of arterial atherosclerosis and resulting cardiovascular disease, eggs were empirically considered harmful to such patients, which affected dietary recommendations. It was later shown that dietary cholesterol intake has little relation to blood cholesterol concentrations because it is esterified and poorly absorbed, and most of the circulating blood cholesterol fraction is synthesized de novo in the liver and other tissues. Because of this, the question of the advisability of dietary egg restriction in cardiac patients was open.
To understand it, Nina Nouhravesh (Nina Nouhravesh) with colleagues at the Duke Clinical Research Institute organized the PROSPERITY trial. It enrolled 140 people aged 50 years and older (average age 66, equally divided between men and women) who had had a cardiovascular event (heart attack or stroke) in the past or had at least two cardiac risk factors such as hypertension, high cholesterol, high body mass index, or diabetes mellitus.
They were randomly assigned to a main group and a control group. In the former, participants consumed 12 fortified eggs with reduced saturated fat and supplementation of iodine, selenium, omega-3 unsaturated fatty acids, vitamins D, B2, B5, and B12 weekly in any form for four months; in the latter, they consumed less than two of any eggs (fortified or not). All participants were invited to the clinic at the beginning of the study, in months one and four, for examination and tests. They were interviewed by telephone in the second and third months.
By the end of the follow-up period, blood levels of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (primary endpoints) in the main group had decreased by 0.64 and 3.14 milligrams per deciliter, respectively. These values do not exceed 0.1 millimoles per liter and such a decrease is statistically insignificant; however, the absence of worsening of these metabolic parameters was reliably demonstrated. Among the secondary endpoints, there was a slight decrease in levels of total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein particles, apolipoprotein B, troponin, and insulin resistance, as well as an increase in B vitamin levels.
Limitations of the study include the small sample size, the inability to be blinded (so that participants did not know which group they were in), and the fact that the level of egg consumption was reported by the patients themselves. Nevertheless, the findings indicate no metabolic harm and even a potential benefit of fortified eggs in older adults with high cardiac risk, which merits further research, the authors of the paper said.
Cooking eggs is a simple skill that almost everyone can master, but it involves complex physical and chemical processes.