Eggs & Health: Eggs Can Help You Lose Weight

September 17, 2008

Posted by Maggie Spilner

If you’re trying to lose weight, consider eggs for breakfast. A study published in the International Journal of Obesity showed that eating two eggs for breakfast, as part of a reduced calorie diet, helps overweight adults lose more weight than adults who ate a bagel of equal calories. And the effect was dramatic.

Men and women who ate eggs:

• Lost 65% more weight

• Reduced their BMI by 61%

• Reported higher energy levels than bagel eaters

Eggs have taken a beating in the last decade because researchers think they might contribute to high cholesterol and heart disease. This two month study found no rise in cholesterol levels. And don’t toss out those yolks! Almost half of an egg’s protein, and many other nutrients, is in the yolk.

This study supports other findings that protein helps people feel more satisfied (and therefore more able to stay on a weight-loss diet) and helps maintain muscle mass. Other low-fat, high quality protein includes fish, poultry and tofu.

Consider buying pasture-raised eggs, from hens that are able to eat a wide variety of natural foods — greens, grubs and insects. They taste great and a better nutritional profile: less cholesterol and fat, more omega-3 fat and more vitamin A and vitamin E, lutein and beta-carotene.

The Anti-Aging Bottom Line: Eggs are certainly worth including in your diet on a regular basis, as are great source of low-fat, high quality protein as well as many other nutrients. And, as recent research has shown, they do not in fact raise cholesterol levels.