We all know that the highest quality protein you can buy in the supermarket, and you can buy them at the lowest cost per pound of any animal protein source. In addition eggs contain practically every essential vitamin and mineral needed by humans except for vitamin C. And all this good nutrition comes at a low caloric cost helping people stay both nutritionally and physically fit. You would think this would be enough quality for any one product, but recent research on other nutrients in the egg, and advances in modifying the composition of the egg have opened up the possibilities of making eggs even healthier with more nutritional contributions and, with bioengineering, a potential cancer-heart disease-diabetes fighting machine.
Eggs readily fall into the category of a functional food (foods or food ingredients which may enhance health by providing a physiological benefit beyond provision of basic nutrients); in fact, eggs are nature´s original functional food providing all the necessary for the developing chick embryo. And now we know that eggs provide a variety of valuable, health enhancing components, which play important roles in our well-being. And the evidence keeps accumulating that we can increase these ingredients in eggs and even include new ingredients to help fight diseases.
Times have changed in the nutrition community from the old days of only complaining about too much fat, cholesterol and salt to a new emphasis on the contributions foods make as sources of health-promoting nutrients. Specialty eggs have already begun to take advantage of this new attitude. Omega-3 enriched eggs are in the market and provide not only a good source of heart disease reducing omega-3 fatty nutrient shown to lower the risk of some chronic diseases.
Studies have shown that egg eaters have a lower risk of cataracts and that including eggs in the diet increases blood levels of two important carotenoids, lutein and zeaxanthin. Both of these carotenoids are found in the macular region of the eye and high blood levels are related to lower risk of age-related macular degeneration. The brighter the yolk, the more carotenoids; and we know how to increase the luteinand zeaxathin content of the egg opening the way for a carotenoid-enriched egg to help lower the risk of the leading cause of blindness in the elderly.
The National Academy of Sciences recently named choline an essential nutrient because of its important role in brain development in the fetus and newborn. And eggs have a lot of choline, as part of the egg yolk lecithin, with one large egg providing almost 50% of the prescribed Adequate Intake (AI) of choline. So for pregnant woman and nursing mothers, eggs provide a highly nutritious, affordable source of an essential nutrient for brain development in the fetus and newborn.
The functional aspect of eggs keeps expanding as research shows the potential for egg to serve as a source of antibodies and as a “protein factory” producing proteins with cancer fighting activity. Studies have shown that eggs from specially vaccinated hens (termed “immune eggs”) provide promising benefit for a number of conditions including a variety of immunoregulatory factors, which are involved in cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, and joint health. And application of genetic engineering technology holds the promise of exploiting the hen´s ability to produce egg proteins for future medications. In this “Pharming” approach, human pharmaceuticals are produced in hens following insertion of specific genes into the breed, and these are used as agents against cancer, HIV rheumatoid arthritis, and osteoporosis. The technology is there to make the egg not only a source of good nutrition, but also a source of nutrients for health promotion and disease prevention. The benefits of the egg of the future are limited only by our vision of its potential and our willingness to take advantage of this most unique food.
By: Dr. Donald McNamara
