Unscrambling the Egg: Are They Healthy?

March 31 -- Whether brightly colored and delivered by bunnies for Easter or served as part of a Passover Seder, eggs are spring holiday fixtures. But how do they fit into a healthy diet?

Advice on the subject is often confusing. After developing a bad reputation among some health advocates, the egg was given a bit of a reprieve in 2000 when new American Heart Association dietary guidelines upped the limit from three or four a week to one a day.

But the guidelines were recently clarified again amid concerns that people would believe they could eat them carte blanche. The AHA now says if you choose to eat an egg a day, you need to keep an eye on your total cholesterol intake. That's because the average large egg contributes a whopping 213 milligrams of cholesterol toward the total 300 milligrams recommended daily maximum.

While essential for some physiological functions, the body tends to produce all the cholesterol it needs. So extra cholesterol from the diet can be problematic. Having too much cholesterol is a risk factor for heart disease — the No. 1 killer in America.

But how does egg consumption fit into this picture — when estimates by the American Egg Board say that every person in the United States will eat 261 of them in one form or another this year?

Some research indicates that the egg may not contribute as much to heart disease as you may think, and others laud the egg for its numerous health benefits — even for those watching their cholesterol intake. Moderation, as always, is the key.

Cholesterol's Only Icon?

The egg has become a symbol of high cholesterol, unhealthy eating habits, and by extension — heart disease.

"For 30 years now, [the egg] has been the icon of dietary cholesterol," acknowledges Donald McNamara, executive director of the Egg Nutrition Center in Washington, D.C.

But recent research suggests that eggs might not be a major contributor to heart disease after all.

One study, conducted by Harvard researchers and published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 1999 looked at the egg consumption of more than 100,000 men and women. It found that eating eggs on their own was unlikely to contribute to heart disease and stroke in healthy individuals.