Don't Cross Your Eyes...They'll Get Stuck That Way!: And 75 Other Health Myths Debunked by Aaron E. Carroll
Authors: Aaron E. Carroll
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your diet, your serum cholesterol goes up about 2 mg per deciliter. That’s not nearly as much as you think. So adding a daily egg to your diet may increase your serum cholesterol by 4 mg/dl. That’s not the difference between a heart attack and no heart attack. This is especially true since other research shows that eggs preferentially cause an increase in large LDL molecules, which are less damaging than smaller ones. Additionally, an increase in HDL, or the “good” cholesterol, also occurs.
The final nail in the coffin of this argument comes when you look at studies of heart disease. A large study of male physicians found that eating up to six eggs a week did not increase the risk of heart failure. Eating more than seven eggs a week did. But this was a study of only male physicians. Another study, a bigger and better one looking at 120,000 men and women, showed no difference in the risk of heart attack or stroke over a fourteen-year period if you ate one or more eggs a day compared to eating an average of one egg per week. Eggs just don’t seem to lead to heart disease in otherwise healthy people.
We’re not advocating that people go right out and eat an unhealthy diet high in cholesterol. But the wholesale avoidance of eggs is an overreaction that has no basis in science. Eggs can be a part of a very healthy diet, and do not deserve the terrible reputation they seem to have developed.
Raw eggs will give you salmonella
Eggs get a bad rap all around. They are blamed for raising your cholesterol, and time and time again we hear about people getting terribly sick with salmonella from eggs. In the 1990s, U.S. government reports suggested that as many as 20 percent of all U.S. chickens were contaminated with salmonella, although later reports dropped that number to as low as 3 percent. Even with the lower numbers, you may worry that eggs are a dangerous food, at least when it comes to food poisoning! Raw eggs, in particular, may inspire panic. The fear of raw eggs is great enough that Rachel worries a little every time she sneaks a lick of the uncooked brownie or cookie batter.
The truth is that eggs, raw or cooked, are not the risky food that you might think. Eggs cause only a tiny percentage—0.5 percent—of all of the illnesses that people in the United States contract from food every year.
But even if it is a small risk, you might still be worried about eggs and salmonella. After all, salmonella are nasty bacteria that can cause bad diarrhea, fever, vomiting, and cramps and can even be fatal in some severe cases. Stories of egg recalls and egg farms being shut down because of salmonella are enough to make any of us scared. And it is true that eggs can be contaminated with salmonella.
Remember, though, that eggs get a bad rap. Despite what you may hear on the news, salmonella does not always come from eggs. It can come from eggs, but up to 85 percent of the cases of people sick with salmonella are unrelated to eggs. Moreover, current estimates are that only 1 in every 30,000 eggs is contaminated by salmonella.
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) tells us that there are several simple steps to make sure that you do not get ill from any bacteria that might be contaminating your eggs. The first step is to keep your eggs refrigerated. If eggs are refrigerated, salmonella and other bacteria that may be present in or on the eggs should not grow. Second, you should cook the eggs until the yolks are firm and cook foods containing eggs thoroughly. Cooking eggs properly should destroy any salmonella that is present.
This advice about cooking eggs properly makes most of us think that the raw egg is to blame for the salmonella. This is not really true. If salmonella is lurking on the egg, it is actually on the shell of the egg, not inside the yolk or white. Usually, the egg’s shell protects the yolk and the egg white against contamination. The problem comes in when the eggshell is cracked open or if there are small
The final nail in the coffin of this argument comes when you look at studies of heart disease. A large study of male physicians found that eating up to six eggs a week did not increase the risk of heart failure. Eating more than seven eggs a week did. But this was a study of only male physicians. Another study, a bigger and better one looking at 120,000 men and women, showed no difference in the risk of heart attack or stroke over a fourteen-year period if you ate one or more eggs a day compared to eating an average of one egg per week. Eggs just don’t seem to lead to heart disease in otherwise healthy people.
We’re not advocating that people go right out and eat an unhealthy diet high in cholesterol. But the wholesale avoidance of eggs is an overreaction that has no basis in science. Eggs can be a part of a very healthy diet, and do not deserve the terrible reputation they seem to have developed.
Raw eggs will give you salmonella
Eggs get a bad rap all around. They are blamed for raising your cholesterol, and time and time again we hear about people getting terribly sick with salmonella from eggs. In the 1990s, U.S. government reports suggested that as many as 20 percent of all U.S. chickens were contaminated with salmonella, although later reports dropped that number to as low as 3 percent. Even with the lower numbers, you may worry that eggs are a dangerous food, at least when it comes to food poisoning! Raw eggs, in particular, may inspire panic. The fear of raw eggs is great enough that Rachel worries a little every time she sneaks a lick of the uncooked brownie or cookie batter.
The truth is that eggs, raw or cooked, are not the risky food that you might think. Eggs cause only a tiny percentage—0.5 percent—of all of the illnesses that people in the United States contract from food every year.
But even if it is a small risk, you might still be worried about eggs and salmonella. After all, salmonella are nasty bacteria that can cause bad diarrhea, fever, vomiting, and cramps and can even be fatal in some severe cases. Stories of egg recalls and egg farms being shut down because of salmonella are enough to make any of us scared. And it is true that eggs can be contaminated with salmonella.
Remember, though, that eggs get a bad rap. Despite what you may hear on the news, salmonella does not always come from eggs. It can come from eggs, but up to 85 percent of the cases of people sick with salmonella are unrelated to eggs. Moreover, current estimates are that only 1 in every 30,000 eggs is contaminated by salmonella.
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) tells us that there are several simple steps to make sure that you do not get ill from any bacteria that might be contaminating your eggs. The first step is to keep your eggs refrigerated. If eggs are refrigerated, salmonella and other bacteria that may be present in or on the eggs should not grow. Second, you should cook the eggs until the yolks are firm and cook foods containing eggs thoroughly. Cooking eggs properly should destroy any salmonella that is present.
This advice about cooking eggs properly makes most of us think that the raw egg is to blame for the salmonella. This is not really true. If salmonella is lurking on the egg, it is actually on the shell of the egg, not inside the yolk or white. Usually, the egg’s shell protects the yolk and the egg white against contamination. The problem comes in when the eggshell is cracked open or if there are small
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