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Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Diabetes Care - What Do the Egg Nutrition Center and American Egg Board Say on Egg Consumption?

Diabetes care in relation to egg consumption is an issue that is back again. The debate on whether eggs are good or not for the diabetics began when a research found that eating too many eggs is related to the diabetes risk increase which is a shame because eggs have nutritional benefits.

In the case of the nutritional value of eggs, a large body of science is on the egg side. For one thing, eggs contain a high quality of protein that promotes muscle strength, energy and growth. The nutritional value of eggs cannot be denied just like for milk. Some even use eggs for weight management purposes.

Eggs also have important nutrients that are shown to lower the risk of neural tube birth defects. In addition, they are supposedly good at promoting eye health. In this connection, an article was published that reported the link between egg consumption and type 2 diabetes.

To arrive at the conclusion, the researchers examined the collected data from the Physicians' Health Study 1. Finding that consuming eggs was connected to a greater incidence of type 2 diabetes was quite unexpected. Why? Because we've known all along the nutritional benefit of eggs.

That is also why, there is a need for more studies on this issue. Now if the other subsequent studies will arrive at the same conclusion, it is time to see if lessening the consumption of eggs will do the same. However, until they do so, it is good to continue to enjoy eating eggs especially the study did not really address the biological mechanism that contributed to the result in their findings.

There are also other factors that could have given meaning to the conclusion. Besides there were other issues left unaddressed like the BMI question, the age of the participants, smokers versus non-smokers, drinkers between non- drinkers. The researchers were cognizant of the limitations to the point the conclusion may have been just related to unhealthy lifestyle.

Now what does the American Egg Board say about this? The AEB is the link between the consumers and the egg producers and consists of 18 members with 18 alternates from all over the country. The secretary of agriculture appointed these people. I was disappointed not to see their take on the result of the study but probably because it has the Egg Nutrition Center that provides necessary information on the role the eggs play on the diet.

That's it. There are two commissions for you whose take on the study linking egg consumption to increased risk in type 2 diabetes is not available at least in this article. Keep tuned for I will research on this further so as to get clear direction regarding egg intake on diabetes care.





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