Eggsemplary scaremongering

Egg yolks almost as unhealthy as cigarettes: Study

What an eggstrordinary claim! I smell fowl play

LONDON, Ont. – Yolk or smoke — the first is almost as bad for you as the second, London researchers have found. But the egg lobby very much disagrees.

The egg lobby? Would that be Big Eggs? Wasn't he in the Beano?

When it comes to raising your risk of heart attacks and strokes, eating egg yolks is nearly as bad as smoking, the Western University researchers found.
"If you are at risk of heart attack and stroke, you shouldn't eat egg yolks," said Dr. David Spence, a Robarts Research Institute scientist.
"The problem is, if you expect to live a long time, you are going to be at risk of heart attacks and strokes," said Spence. "Why would you want to be eating something that makes the plaque in your arteries build up faster and make your heart attack and stroke come on sooner?"

Erm.. The logic kind of escapes me here. If you expect to get old you're going to be at risk of dying? No shit, Sherlock.

The Western researchers studied 1,231 patients, using ultrasound to measure the plaque build-up on the inside walls of their arteries. Most heart attacks and strokes are caused when the built-up plaque ruptures.
Patients in the study filled out questionnaires about their lifestyle and medications, including their consumption of egg yolks and cigarettes.
While the build-up of plaque was a straight-line increase for people after age 40, it rose exponentially for smokers and regular egg-yolk eaters.

I wonder if there were any other factors involved? Did the egg eaters usually accompany their eggs yolks with (the whites) bacon, sausages and fried bread, or did they just scoop out the yolk and eat it as part of a balanced diet?

Researchers also found people eating three or more egg yolks a week had significantly more plaque on their artery walls than those eating two or fewer yolks a week.

Ken Frost thinks these claims are eggsaggerated too:

A paper prepared by the British Nutrition Foundation states that the cholesterol in eggs has only a small, and clinically insignificant, effect on blood cholesterol."

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Egg Farmers of Canada rejected the findings in the Western study.Karen Harvey, a nutrition officer and registered dietician with the national organization, said it's unfair to compare egg yolks with smoking.
"It goes without saying that smoking is considered one of the most harmful activities when it comes to your personal health and wellness,” Harvey said.

Wellness? Is that really a word? Of course he is correct. Smoking causes everything from inner ear infections to undescended testicles. Nothing else can be this bad for you.

“We have decades of clinical, scientific research that demonstrates no link between egg consumption and an increased risk for heart disease.”
Eggs are one of the most nutritious foods and the yolk a major source of an egg's vitamins and minerals, she said.

Not only that, they taste bloody gorgeous. There's nowt better than sitting down to boiled eggs with toast soldiers egg on toast for breakfast.

Spence expects a backlash from the egg industry.
The last time he released a study in 2010, linking eggs to health problems, Spence's home was egged and a major donor pulled its funding from the university.

LOL! Eggsellent!

Here's some I had on holiday in Portugal when an egg cup was nowhere to be found:

Bloggers breakfast

So what are you having for breakfast tomorrow?