Why are eggs bad for you?
Eggs contain compounds that are harmful when eaten in excess, like cholesterol and saturated fat. These ingredients have been linked to the development of chronic diseases and increased death risks.
Cholesterol
Cholesterol is a fatty, waxy carbon compound that is made in the liver. It performs a variety of functions, including helping the body to make vitamins and hormones necessary for the body to function normally. People must have a certain amount of cholesterol, but their bodies can make enough to provide what’s needed.
Eating more cholesterol than necessary, which is easily done when eggs are part of your diet, may lead to serious health risks. In a 2019 Korean study, any increase in cholesterol levels for individuals who had levels greater than 200 milligrams per decilitre in any age group was associated with higher risk of death. Depending on age, the risk of dying increased by up to 14%.
Heart disease
According to the World Heart Federation, high cholesterol increases the risk of stroke and heart disease and causes more than 4.4 million deaths every year worldwide. A positive association between the consumption of egg yolks and plaque formation in arteries was found by one study a decade ago.
Diabetes
Diabetes is a serious chronic disease that causes life-altering illness and high death rates. Diabetes is responsible for around 4.2 million deaths annually in people 20 to 79 years old, or just over 11% of all deaths worldwide.
Although studies investigating the relationship between type 2 diabetes and egg consumption have shown controversial results, there are many studies linking egg consumption with the risk of developing the disease. In one meta-analysis, diabetes risk increased by up to 39% for people in the US consuming three or more eggs per week, though not for those in non-US studies. A study published in 2021 found that Chinese adults who ate eggs regularly were more likely to develop diabetes, and other studies have found that the more eggs consumed, the higher the risk.
Cancer
Several studies suggest a positive association between egg consumption, cancer mortality, breast cancer, and ovarian cancer. Some evidence suggest that egg consumption may increase the risk of those cancers, and worsen the progression of prostate cancer to make death more likely. For women, eating five or more eggs per week was significantly associated with higher breast cancer risk.
Food poisoning
Salmonellosis, also called Salmonella, is a bacterial infection that causes diarrhea, cramping, vomiting, fever, headaches, and nausea, and it is one of the pathogens that causes food poisoning. Eggs and eggshells are frequently contaminated with Salmonella bacteria through contact with infected chicken feces, making it an important worldwide public health concern. To make matters worse, hens are held in such stressful, unnatural, and unhealthy conditions on factory farms that they may be immunocompromised and more likely to suffer from bacterial infections.
Salmonella infections from food sources cause over 80 million cases of illness each year globally, and in the United States, over 53% of foodborne Salmonella infections have been traced back to eggs. In Europe, a multi-country outbreak in 2022 due to contaminated eggs resulted in nearly 300 illnesses and two deaths.
