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Archive/LD
A new study has uncovered the reason for the protective effect of moderate egg consumption, by increasing the amount of heart-healthy metabolites in the blood, as published by its authors in the magazine ‘eLife’. These results suggest that eating up to one egg a day may help reduce the risk of developing cardiovascular disease.
Eggs are a rich source of dietary cholesterol, but they also contain a variety of essential nutrients. There is conflicting evidence about whether eating eggs is beneficial or detrimental to heart health. A 2018 study published in the journal ‘Heart’, which included To approximately half a million adults in China, he discovered They found that those who ate eggs daily (approximately one egg a day) had a substantially lower risk of heart disease and stroke than those who ate eggs less frequently.
Now, to better understand this relationship, the authors of this paper have conducted a population-based study exploring how egg consumption affects markers of cardiovascular health in the blood.
“Few studies have looked at the role of plasma cholesterol metabolism in the association between egg consumption and cardiovascular disease risk, so we wanted to help fill this gap,” he explains. The first author, Lang Pan, from the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Peking University, China.
Pan and his team selected 4,778 participants from China’s Kadoorie Biobank, of whom 3,401 had cardiovascular disease and 1,377 did not. They used a technique called directed nuclear magnetic resonance to measure 225 metabolites in plasma samples taken from the participants’ blood. Of these metabolites, they identified 24 that were associated with self-reported levels of egg consumption. an higher levels of a protein in the bloodcalled apolipoprotein A1, a component of high-density lipoprotein (HDL), also known as “good lipoprotein.” These individuals especially had more large HDL molecules in their blood, which help remove cholesterol from blood vessels and thus protect against blockages that can lead to heart attacks and accidents. cerebrovascular.
The researchers also identified 14 metabolites linked to heart disease. They found that participants who ate fewer eggs had lower levels of beneficial metabolites and higher levels of harmful ones in their blood, compared to those who ate eggs more regularly.
“Together, our results offer a possible explanation for how eating a moderate amount of eggs may help protect against heart disease,” said lead author Canqing Yu, an associate professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics from Peking University–. Further studies are needed to verify the causal roles that lipid metabolites play in the association between egg consumption and cardiovascular disease risk.”
“This study also “It may not have implications for Chinese national dietary guidelines,” adds lead author Liming Li, Boya Distinguished Professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at Peking University. Current health guidelines in China suggest eating one egg a day, but data indicates that the average consumption is less than this. Our work highlights the need to apply more strategies to promote moderate consumption of eggs among the population, in order to help reduce the general risk of cardiovascular diseases”.