Why include eggs in your daily diet?

Eggs are often considered as a staple food, while in my opinion they are real nutritional nuggets! Rich in essential proteins, vitamins and minerals, they play a key role in a balanced diet. Yet, despite their many benefits, eggs have long been demonized and left out (especially due to the cholesterol they bring. Find out in this article why they should be integrated into your daily diet, highlighting their nutritional benefits, recipe ideas, and what the latest scientific studies say about their impact on health!

A great source of Protein

Eggs are one of the best sources of protein in the diet, and I’ll tell you why!

Egg proteins contain the 9 essential amino acids, which are essential for our body’s proper functioning and cannot be produced by the body itself. But what makes the egg particularly interesting is its bioavailability!

Bioavailabili-what ?

The bioavailability of a nutrient is the body’s ability to assimilate and use it. The biological value of albumin (the protein that makes up the majority of the egg) is almost 100! To give you a comparison, those of meat and poultry are around 70-80. It is therefore a source of very good quality protein!

Proteins participate in particular:

• the maintenance of muscle mass (this is their structural role) 🏋🏼‍♀️

• to recovery after effort (such as muscle reconstruction)💪🏼

• to the feeling of satiety (rather useful, don't you think ?)

In short, it is a simple, economical and super effective food to help cover your protein needs (and not that we will see this later), whether at breakfast or integrated into any other meal!

A precious source of Vitamin D

Vitamin D is essential for the proper functioning of the body. In normal times, our body produces between 80 and 90% thanks to sufficient exposure to the sun: UVB rays make it possible to synthesize from cholesterol present in the skin.

The rest, about 10 to 20%, must come from food.

The worry? Many people do not expose themselves often enough or whistle for a long time in the sun (especially in winter or urban areas). And on the food side, natural sources of vitamin D do not run the streets!

It is in the egg yolk that vitamin D is concentrated. Eggs therefore make it possible to supplement the intakes, especially during the winter or in people who are not exposed to natural light.

Vitamin D, what is it for ?

Vitamin D plays an important role in many functions, including:

• bone health: promoting calcium absorption

• the proper functioning of the immune system

• muscle function, intervening in muscle contraction and recovery

👉🏼 So even if the egg does not provide a huge amount of vitamin D (about 1 to 2 µg depending on the chicken’s diet), it is still a valuable food source to integrate into your diet.

Choline: a key nutrient... yet still too little known

Among the many nutrients found in eggs, choline clearly deserves to be highlighted. It plays a central role in many functions of the organization.

Brain function and memory 🧠

Choline is also essential for the production of acetylcholine, a neurotransmitter involved in memory, attention and communication between neurons.

Fetal brain development 👶🏼

In pregnant women, adequate intake of choline is essential to support the development of the baby’s nervous system, with a protective effect on future cognitive functions.

Muscle function 💪🏼

It is also involved in the proper functioning of muscles, especially through muscle contraction, in connection with its role in nerve transmission.

Liver metabolism and cardiovascular protection

Choline plays a key role in fat transport. It allows the liver to export lipids to tissues, thus preventing their excessive accumulation. Choline acts a bit like a "conductor" of the fat traffic in the liver. Without it, greases stagnate and accumulate where they should not.

It is also involved in the metabolism of homocysteine, an amino acid whose excess can be associated with a higher cardiovascular risk.

Guess what? Eggs are one of the best natural sources of choline. An average egg contains about 125mg of choline, or nearly 25% of the recommended daily requirements for an adult.

A concentrate of essential micronutrients

Beyond their protein content, eggs are real little nutritional treasures, source of many vitamins and minerals essential to our balance. They provide iron, vitamin B12, vitamin A, selenium, zinc or iodine!

A super versatile food in the kitchen 🍳

One of the egg’s great assets, beyond its nutritional qualities, is its incredible versatility in cooking. It can be consumed in many different forms, and at all meals of the day, in salty as well as sweet preparations.

🍳 Alone, it can be the protein source of a meal: fried eggs, scrambled, hard, poached, casserole, omelette... the possibilities are numerous, quick to prepare, and in the end quite economical!

🍞 As a binder or recipe base: the egg is a structural ingredient, essential in quiches to bind appliances, in gratins, cakes, crêpes, flans or in brioché breads.

💧 It also acts as an emulsifier for the preparation of sauces: thanks to the lecithin it contains, egg yolk allows to bind ingredients that do not mix naturally (such as water and oil). It is therefore used in the preparation of many sauces, such as mayonnaise, aioli, hollandaise sauce, mousseline sauce, and many others...

🥗 It is found in traditional dishes of the world:

• Chakchouka (Maghreb): eggs cooked in a spicy tomato sauce

• Frittata (Italy): a kind of thick omelette with vegetables, cheese, etc.

• Huevos rancheros (Mexico): eggs served on tortillas with salsa

• Cilbir (Turkey): poached eggs on a garlic yoghurt base

• And there is also the traditional Italian carbonara !

Eggs... and cholesterol: separating the true from the false ✅

Eggs are high in cholesterol, but should we really worry about it? For a long time, they have been singled out because of their cholesterol content. Yet recent studies tend to show that their impact on cardiovascular health is much more limited than previously thought.

What does science say ?

• A 2013 meta-analysis found no association between egg consumption and cardiovascular risk in the majority of healthy individuals.

• A 2018 study even showed that eating one egg per day did not increase the risk of heart disease or stroke.

• Several recent scientific reviews confirm that the impact of dietary cholesterol on blood cholesterol is low to moderate, because the body naturally adjusts its own endogenous production of cholesterol.

Why do eggs not drastically increase blood cholesterol?

Because 80% of the cholesterol in our body is produced by the liver, and not brought by food. When consuming dietary cholesterol, the liver compensates by reducing its own production (to maintain a balance). This self-regulating mechanism explains why eggs have a limited impact on blood cholesterol levels in most people.

Can we eat eggs every day?

Yes, but as for everything, it depends on the individual and his state of health (and obviously the quantities consumed!). There are still special cases for which it will be necessary to be more vigilant, such as people with family hypercholesterolemia or high cardiovascular risk factors, or people with diabetes.

One egg a day is not associated with cardiovascular health risk.

What to remember

It’s not so much cholesterol that is a problem, but rather the quality of food as a whole: saturated fats, trans fats, a diet high in sugar... can more easily impact our blood cholesterol.

In summary: eggs are nutritious, filling and very good for health, as long as they are integrated into a balanced diet. They are not the enemies of your health, quite the contrary. So feast!

Bibliography

Cashman, K. D., et al. (2016). Vitamin D deficiency in Europe: pandemic? American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 103(4), 1033-1044. https://doi.org/10.3945/ajcn.115.120873

Zeisel, S. H., & da Costa, K. A. (2009). Choline: an essential nutrient for public health. Nutrition Reviews, 67(11), 615–623. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1753-4887.2009.00246.x

Berger, S., Raman, G., Vishwanathan, R., Jacques, P. F., & Johnson, E. J. (2015). Dietary cholesterol and cardiovascular disease: a systematic review and meta-analysis. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 102(2), 276-294. https://doi.org/10.3945/ajcn.114.100305

Zazpe, I., Beunza, J. J., Bes-Rastrollo, M., Warnberg, J., De La Fuente-Arrillaga, C., Benito, S., & Martinez-Gonzalez, M. A. (2011). Egg consumption and risk of cardiovascular disease in the SUN Project. European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 65(6), 676–682. https://doi.org/10.1038/ejcn.2011.30