Tag: eggs

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There is Hope for People with Egg Allergy

A broken egg. (iStockphoto/Thinkstock)
A broken egg. (iStockphoto/Thinkstock)

Millions of people around the world suffer from egg allergy. It is a hypersensitivity to dietary substances from the yolk or whites of eggs, causing an overreaction of the immune system which may lead to severe physical symptoms.

Egg allergy appears mainly in children although some adults are affected by it as well. It is the second most common food allergy in children, the most common is cow’s milk allergy.

The most severe food allergy reaction is called anaphylaxis and is an emergency situation requiring immediate attention and treatment with epinephrine. The Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America estimates that most children outgrow egg allergy by the age of five, but some people remain allergic for a lifetime.

It is estimated that one in every 13 Canadian suffers from a significant food allergy. Besides egg and milk, other common food allergies are to peanut, fish and sesame. Research indicates that peanut and nut allergies were much more common in children than adults and the opposite was true with fish and shellfish allergy.

Here is the good news now. A study published in The New England Journal of Medicine (July 19, 2012) provides hope for children with egg allergy. It says egg allergy can be substantially reduced and in some cases can be cured.

The research was conducted by feeding children with severe egg allergies with tiny amounts of egg protein (oral immunotherapy). Over time, the dose was steadily increased. The idea was to allow the body to gradually learn to tolerate exposure to the substance.

Results:

-After 10 months of therapy, 55 per cent of those who received oral immunotherapy passed the oral food challenge and were considered to be desensitized.

-After 22 months, 75 per cent of children in the oral immunotherapy group were desensitized.

-At 30 months and 36 months, all children who had passed the oral food challenge at 24 months were consuming egg.

About 25 per cent of the children who did not respond to oral immunotherapy suggests that some patients will need treatment on a regular basis for a longer time. The researchers believe even if it doesn’t provide a complete cure for everyone, the treatment may be able to reduce the severity of allergic reactions in many patients.

Parents are cautioned not to try this kind of treatment (oral immunotherapy) at home without medical supervision. A lot more research needs to be done before the therapy is ready for the general public. Oral immunotherapy is still considered experimental and should not be attempted outside a research trial. For now, this research paper provides hope for millions of people who have food allergies.

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One Egg A Day Is Good For Healthy People

It is not uncommon for people to wonder whether eating eggs is healthy. If it is healthy then how many eggs one should eat in a week.

This confusion is quite understandable. Eggs have developed a reputation of being high on cholesterol. But we do not know to what extent dietary cholesterol raises blood cholesterol level. Many scientists believe that saturated fats and trans fats have a greater role than does dietary cholesterol in raising blood cholesterol level.

The American Heart Association has said that as long as you limit dietary cholesterol from other sources, it may be possible to include a daily egg in a healthy diet.

Here is what the Mayo Clinic website says: One large egg has about 213 milligrams (mg) of cholesterol — all of which is found in the yolk. If you are healthy, it’s recommended that you limit your dietary cholesterol intake to less than 300 mg a day. If you have cardiovascular disease, diabetes or high LDL (or “bad”) cholesterol, you should limit your dietary cholesterol intake to less than 200 mg a day. Therefore, if you eat an egg on a given day, it’s important to limit or avoid other sources of cholesterol for the rest of that day.

If you like eggs but don’t want the extra cholesterol, use egg whites. Egg whites contain no cholesterol. You may also use cholesterol-free egg substitutes, which are made with egg whites. If you want to reduce cholesterol in a recipe that calls for eggs, use two egg whites or 1/4 cup cholesterol-free egg substitute in place of one whole egg.

I have been eating eggs all my life. These days I prefer to eat egg white. Occasionally, I do eat a whole egg and sometimes I eat eggs fortified with omega-3 fatty acids.

Does it matter how we cook our egg?

My enquiries and research tells me that different methods of cooking eggs do not make a difference in nutrient content. But we should remember that composition of a prepared food is the combination of all the ingredients used and the method used to prepare the food.

For example, fried egg will have higher fat content due to presence of oil. A typical scrambled egg may have some dairy product which will contribute its own nutrients and calories to the preparation. Same principle applies when preparing an omelet.

A cooked egg also loses water so the nutrients are more concentrated. Protein in the cooked egg is more digestible than an uncooked egg because cooking slightly denatures the protein.

There are no known benefits of eating raw eggs. In fact eating raw eggs is considered unsafe because of the risk of salmonella infection. Though the odds are pretty low – in US it is estimated to be 0.045 per cent and only one egg in 20,000 eggs is estimated to contain salmonella. Salmonella does not grow well at cold temperatures; therefore, refrigeration is very important. Properly cooked eggs destroys salmonella.

For safety reasons eggs should be cooked until the white and yolk are solid. We should be careful with recipes that require raw shell eggs or partly cooked eggs but do not require any heating to reach a temperature which will harden the egg white and the egg yolk.

Egg is considered to be a complete food. It is low in calories (79 calories) and is loaded with protein, important vitamins and minerals. Egg is low in fat but the yolk is high in cholesterol. Yolk is also high in calories (egg white 16 calories vs. yolk 63 calories per egg).

An egg a day is now considered safe for those people who have no cardiac or cholesterol problems. But egg white is healthier and safer to eat as it is low in calories with no fat or cholesterol. Egg white cartons can be easily purchased from Canadian supermarkets.

Click here for newer articles about cholesterol.

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Eggs and Heart Disease

Dear Dr. B: I am a young body builder and eat ten to twelve eggs each week as a source of protein and vitamins. My cholesterol level is normal but I have a bad family history of heart problems. Should I be eating eggs? Do eggs cause heart disease?

Answer: Let us get one thing straight – there are many reasons why a person gets heart disease. Heart disease cannot be blamed on eating eggs only. I surfed various websites to see if there was a clear cut answer to your question.

First step in the prevention of heart disease is to identify your risk factors. Second step is to take measures to control these factors.

Here is the bad news. Heart disease is a number one killer and is going to affect 70 per cent of our population. It is unfortunate that you have a family history of heart disease. This doubles your risk of getting heart problems as you get older. Since you cannot change your genes you have to change other risk factors starting early in your life. Remember the risk of heart disease and stroke increases after the age of 45.

Your ethnicity counts. It has been found that black people, Aboriginal Peoples, and South Asians from India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka have a greater chance of developing high blood pressure, heart disease and stroke. Do you belong to any one of these groups?

Do you drink alcohol? Studies have shown drinking too much alcohol – particularly binge drinking – can increase your blood pressure and contribute to the development of high blood pressure , heart disease and stroke. No drinking or drinking in moderation is important for good health.

The best news you have is that your cholesterol level is normal while you are young. You should take steps to keep this under control with proper diet and exercise. Why? Because high blood cholesterol is responsible for heart attacks, stroke, clogging of the arteries and high blood pressure.

Where does cholesterol come from? There are two sources: our body makes cholesterol and there is cholesterol in the animal food we eat such as eggs, regular milk products, meat and poultry. High fat foods containing saturated and trans fat are lethal because they are high in cholesterol

What about eggs?

Egg is considered to be a complete food. It is low in calories (79 calories) and is loaded with protein (six grams of protein per egg), important vitamins and minerals. Egg is low in fat but the yolk is high in cholesterol. Yolk is also high in calories (egg white 16 vs. yolk 63 calories per egg).

The average large egg yolk contains 212 mg. of cholesterol. This is considered to be high and it is rivaled only by single servings of liver, shrimp, and duck meat. Compare this to other foods: one cup of whole milk has 35 mg. of cholesterol, one cup of skim milk has four gm. of cholesterol, one ounce of cheese has 20-30 mg. of cholesterol and 3.5 ounce of beef or chicken has 70-100 mg. of cholesterol. Shrimp (3.5 oz.) and cod have 25 and 65 mg. of cholesterol respectively.

For healthy individuals, the American Heart Association recommends 300 mg or less of dietary cholesterol a day. If you have one of the risk factors for heart disease then 200 mg or less of dietary cholesterol is recommended. There are many other risk factors which you can control such as obesity, diabetes, smoking and high blood pressure.

An individual’s capacity to handle dietary cholesterol also varies. A cardiologist in New York City treated over 8,000 patients with a diet high in meat, milk, and eggs and he lowered the serum cholesterol markedly in 63 percent of his patients. The cardiologist, Dr. Itchiness, believes that 95 percent of all heart trouble is associated with high serum triglycerides and attributes this to the staggering increase in sugar consumption – up from 7 pounds per person in 1840 to over 100 pounds today.

Important thing is to use common sense, exercise regularly and eat a sensible diet in moderation. Relax, be happy and laugh a lot.

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Eggs, Eggs, and Eggs

Dear Dr. B: Does the nutritional value of an egg change if a person eats an egg raw, partially raw, hard boiled, scrambled, fried whole, or omelet? Some people believe it is nutritionally better to eat eggs raw. Is there any truth in that?

Answer: I have been eating eggs all my life. These days I prefer to eat egg white. Occasionally, I do eat a whole egg and sometimes I eat eggs fortified with omega-3 fatty acids. Mostly I make an omelet with egg white, tomatoes and onions or fry an egg with little bit of margarine.

My enquiries and research tells me that different methods of cooking eggs do not make a difference in nutrient content. But we should remember that composition of a prepared food is the combination of all the ingredients used and the method used to prepare the food.

For example, fried egg will have higher fat content due to presence of oil. A typical scrambled egg may have some dairy product which will contribute its own nutrients and calories to the preparation. Same principle applies when preparing an omelet.

A cooked egg also loses water so the nutrients are more concentrated. Protein in the cooked egg is more digestible than an uncooked egg because cooking slightly denatures the protein.

There are no known benefits of eating raw eggs. In fact eating raw eggs is considered unsafe because of the risk of salmonella infection. Though the odds are pretty low – in US it is estimated to be 0.045 per cent and only one egg in 20,000 eggs is estimated to contain salmonella. Salmonella does not grow well at cold temperatures; therefore, refrigeration is very important. Properly cooked eggs destroys salmonella

Recent news about the avian flu or “bird flu” has caused some concern. As we know avian influenza was first confirmed on an Abbotsford, BC area farm on February 19, 2004. By quarantining affected farms and humanely destroying flocks, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) was effectively able to control and put a stop to this outbreak.

CFIA states that there is no public health risk associated with consuming eggs as a result of these cases. The eggs available at Canadian supermarkets are safe to eat. No eggs from any infected flocks entered the food chain.

For safety reasons eggs should be cooked until the white and yolk are solid. We should be careful with recipes that require raw shell eggs or partly cooked eggs but do not require any heating to reach a temperature which will harden the egg white and the egg yolk.

Egg is considered to be a complete food. It is low in calories (79 calories) and is loaded with protein, important vitamins and minerals. Egg is low in fat but the yolk is high in cholesterol. Yolk is also high in calories (egg white 16 vs. yolk 63 calories per egg).

An egg a day is now considered safe for those people who have no cardiac or cholesterol problems. But egg white is healthier and safer to eat as it is low in calories with no fat or cholesterol. Egg white cartons can be easily purchased from Canadian supermarkets.

Thought for the week:

“All the things I really like to do are either immoral, illegal or fattening.”

– Alexander Woollcott 1887-1943

Start reading the preview of my book A Doctor's Journey for free on Amazon. Available on Kindle for $2.99!