It reduces the risk of type 2 diabetes and heart disease, and even helps us lose weight.
And despite the years of health warnings about how eggs increase cholesterol levels, they actually improve artery health, researchers from the University of Alabama at Birmingham have discovered.
Eating three eggs a day – when the advice has been to eat no more than three a week – improves the body’s overall cholesterol profile and reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease.
The low-carb, high-fat diet seems especially healthy in older people. The researchers put 34 obese people, aged between 60 to 75, either on a very-low carb diet or a low-fat diet for eight weeks.
Those on the low-carb diet lost 10 percent of body fat while those on the low-fat diet lost 2 percent, and the low-carb group also saw their insulin sensitivity improve and their fasting insulin levels fall, suggesting they had lowered their risk of diabetes and heart disease.
“Eggs are an important, nutrient-rich food source vital to growth and development as well as maintenance of muscle mass,” said lead researcher Amy Goss. She said the low-carb diet could have special benefits for older people aged from 65 years, a population at a high risk of chronic disease while needing to preserve muscle mass.
