Is eating more than 10 eggs a day healthy?

Fitness influencer Gracyanne Barbosa, one of the participants in the 25th edition of Big Brother Brasil, a reality show broadcast on TV Globo, ate nine boiled eggs on just the first day of the program.

Gracyanne has already stated that, in her normal routine, she eats 40 eggs a day. She said, however, that she knew that in the reality show she would be forced to change her diet.

In a video posted on her social networks before the debut of the new edition of Big Brother Brasil, the former dancer joked about the issue: “There are 40 eggs that I eat a day, times 7 days a week, times 15 weeks of BBB 25 . Ah, so I only need 4,200 eggs to be happy in BBB 25.”

But after all, is it good for your health to eat more than 10 eggs — or even 40 — a day?

According to nutritionists consulted by BBC Brasil, excessive and repeated consumption of any food is contraindicated.

“No food is freely consumed. Not vegetables or fruits”, says Antonio Herbert Lancha Jr., professor at the University of São Paulo (USP). All foods must respect an amount in line with our daily needs.”

Eggs are very popular among athletes and bodybuilders because, in addition to being a low-cost and easy-to-prepare food, they contain high-quality proteins, helping to build and repair muscles and, therefore, promote hypertrophy.

But according to nutritionist Desire Coelho, PhD in Sciences from the Institute of Biomedical Sciences at the University of São Paulo (USP), many of the habits practiced by bodybuilders and fitness influencers with extreme routines are not supported by science.

“Each person has a different metabolic response,” he says. “This participant herself is not the physiological norm. Her body may tolerate excessive egg consumption well, but other people probably won’t.”

Gracyanne has already said in interviews that the diet of 40 eggs a day is monitored by health professionals.

According to Coelho, the recommended daily consumption of the nutrient depends on the level of physical activity practiced, but ranges from 0.8 to 2.4 grams of protein per kilogram per day.

Each chicken egg has about 6 grams of protein. By consuming 40 units, Gracyanne Barbosa would be ingesting the equivalent of 240 grams of the nutrient every day — an excess considering her weight.

“There is a physiological effect of ingesting such a high amount, but also a social effect, as it can generate a lot of gas”, says Desire Coelho.

According to Antonio Lancha Jr., research has shown that excessive consumption of eggs can cause changes in intestinal bacteria and lead to the production of a substance called TMAO. This, in turn, is linked to stimulating cholesterol production.

High cholesterol is associated with an increased risk of heart disease. At the same time, the substance plays a fundamental role in the execution of vital functions in the body.

The amount of lipids ingested with the egg varies depending on the way it is prepared. Boiled eggs, for example, are considered much healthier than fried eggs.

Gracyanne Barbosa reported in the past eating 40 eggs daily — ten of them with the yolk and the rest with just the white —, divided into eight eggs per meal.

The yolk is, in fact, the fattiest part of the egg. One egg yolk contains about 185 milligrams of cholesterol, which is more than half the daily amount of 300 mg recommended by American bodies until recently.

But according to Lancha Jr., eating only egg whites can also lead to increased thymol production and, consequently, changes in the ability to synthesize cholesterol.

Furthermore, says the nutritionist, excess protein in the diet can lead to the production of hydrogen sulfide (H2S), linked to the proliferation of tumor cells in the intestine.

“By publicizing the excessive consumption of eggs on television, it may be doing the population a disservice”, says the USP professor.

According to nutritionists, consuming up to three eggs per day is considered normal. In some cases, this quantity can be high, reaching between five and seven eggs per day, but always with medical guidance and in line with the needs of each metabolism.

People who do a lot of exercise or do not consume sources of protein other than eggs, for example, may be instructed to eat more eggs.

But 40 is an amount considered extremely excessive and unhealthy, experts say.

Desire Coelho also highlights that consuming excess protein for hypertrophy or other extreme aesthetic goals may be indicative of eating disorders.

“People with excessive control, who give up social moments in relation to food, or who maintain a diet that can cause harm, already exhibit traits of disordered eating”, he says.

For Lancha Jr., dietary monotony —the practice of always eating the same foods— and excessive consumption of certain foods can also generate a negative nocebo effect.

“An individual who is in the habit of consuming this amount of eggs in a single day may feel psychologically weak if they reduce the amount or change their diet,” he says.

OVO: ‘VILLAIN’ OR ‘GOOD GUY’?

The debate about the benefits and harms of eating eggs is constant among doctors and nutritionists.

While they are affordable, easy to cook and full of protein, they are high in cholesterol.

One egg yolk contains about 185 milligrams of cholesterol, which is more than half the daily amount of 300 mg of cholesterol recommended by American bodies until recently.

But scientists have not established any definitive link between cholesterol consumption and an increased risk of cardiovascular disease.

For this reason, dietary guidelines in the USA no longer indicate restrictions on cholesterol, nor in the United Kingdom.

Instead, the emphasis is on limiting the amount of saturated fat we consume, which, yes, can increase the risk of developing cardiovascular disease.

Foods that contain trans fats, in particular, increase our levels of LDL, which stands for “low density lipoprotein”, known as “bad cholesterol”.

Although some trans fats are naturally in animal products, most are produced artificially and are found in higher levels in margarine, snack foods, fried foods, and baked goods such as cakes and donuts.

Meanwhile, along with shrimp, eggs are the only foods rich in cholesterol and low in saturated fat.

“While the cholesterol in eggs is much higher than in meat and other animal products, saturated fat increases blood cholesterol. This has been shown by many studies for years,” Maria Luz Fernandez, professor of science, told the BBC nutritional supplements from the University of Connecticut whose latest research found no link between eating a standard amount of eggs and an increased risk of cardiovascular disease.

The discussion about the health effects of eggs has changed in part because our bodies can compensate for the cholesterol we consume.

“There are systems in place [no corpo] so that, for most people, ingested cholesterol is not a problem,” says Elizabeth Johnson, associate professor in nutritional sciences at Tufts University in the USA.

In a review of 40 studies published in 2015, Johnson and a team of researchers found no conclusive evidence about the relationship between dietary cholesterol and heart disease.

“Human beings have good regulation when consuming dietary cholesterol and, in this case, they produce less cholesterol (in their bodies)”, he explains.

And when it comes to eggs, cholesterol may pose an even smaller health risk. Cholesterol is most harmful when oxidized in our arteries, but oxidation doesn’t happen with the cholesterol in eggs, says Blesso.

“When cholesterol is oxidized, it can be more inflammatory. But in eggs there are all kinds of antioxidants that prevent oxidation,” he explains.

This is all, of course, when eggs are consumed in the recommended quantity, without excess.

Publications from 2019, however, challenged the recent consensus that eggs are harmless to our health.

In one of them, researchers analyzed data from 30,000 adults followed for an average of 17 years and found that each additional half egg consumed per day had a significant association with a higher risk of heart disease and death.

“We found that for every additional 300 mg of cholesterol consumed by a person, regardless of the origin of the food, the risks increased by 17% for cardiovascular disease and 18% for mortality from various causes”, says Norrina Allen, one of the authors of the study and associate professor of preventive medicine at Northwestern University, in the USA.

“We also found that every half egg per day leads to a 6% increase in the risk of heart disease and an 8% increase in the risk of mortality.”

Although the study is one of the largest of its kind to address this specific relationship between eggs and heart disease, it is observational in nature, giving no indication of cause and effect.

It also relied on a single set of self-reported data — participants were asked what they ate in the previous month or year and had their health indicators tracked for years.

This means the researchers only got a snippet of what the participants were eating, as diets can change over time.

And the study conflicts with previous studies.

Several of them have already suggested that eggs are good for heart health. One published in 2018 and based on data from half a million adults in China even demonstrated the opposite: egg consumption was associated with a lower risk of heart disease.

Those who ate eggs every day had an 18% lower risk of death from heart disease and a 28% lower risk of death from stroke compared to those who didn’t eat eggs.

Like the previous study, this one with Chinese data was also observational, meaning it is impossible to demonstrate causality: do healthier adults in China simply eat more eggs, or does the food make them healthier?

In other words, which comes first, the egg or its benefits to people?

These kinds of unknowns could fuel much of the confusion that remains about whether eggs are heroes or villains.

This text was originally published here.