How Many Eggs a Day Is Considered Healthy?

Updated on April 23rd, 2020
daily intake of eggs - benefits

Eggs are an excellent source of nutrients and offer tremendous health benefits, making them one of the healthiest food choices. Regardless of being one of the excellent protein sources, offering a variety of proteins, eggs are also regarded as a bad food option, thanks to a high quantity of saturated fat and cholesterol content.

Also, eggs offer excellent nutritional value and health benefits. Eggs are a rich source of Zeaxanthin and Lutein; the antioxidants credited to keep your eyes healthy and active.

Eggs are also rich in Choline, an essential brain nutrient that supports brain functioning. And not to forget the effectiveness of eggs in increasing muscle mass and promoting bone health.

As such, there’s no specific number of eggs an individual can consume as part of a healthy daily diet.

Even, eggs were once regarded as an unhealthy food option in terms of heart problems and high cholesterol concerns. Since the egg yolk contains an excellent level of cholesterol, it is incredibly beneficial for your cardiovascular system.

However, the consumption of cholesterol was once thought to considerably increase the cholesterol levels in the body, hence leading to an increased risk of heart diseases. In this post, we’ll cover everything you need to know about the health benefits of eggs and how many eggs a day is safe to have(1).

What is Cholesterol?

Cholesterol is a fatty matter responsible for supporting a wide range of essential bodily functions.

The role of cholesterol is to support the formation of new hormones and cells, production of bile acids that dissolve fat and facilitate the absorption of vitamins and other essential nutrients.

Researchers have now confirmed that the cholesterol people get from the foods only has a minor influence on the overall cholesterol levels in their body.

Most of the cholesterol formation occurs in the liver. The most influential factor behind cholesterol formation is not how much of cholesterol you consume, but several other factors like the quantity of saturated fat in your diet also plays a vital role.

Earlier, there used to be many misunderstanding regarding the importance of cholesterol in your body; however, the latest research and evidence has now debugged those myths.

Good and Bad Cholesterol Levels

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How cholesterol moves through your bloodstream is related to the effects it produces.

Either high-density lipoproteins (HDL) or low-density lipoproteins (LDL) are responsible for the transportation of the cholesterol.

Typically, HDL is accountable for gathering cholesterol that is not required anymore, and the LDL plays a leading role in transporting cholesterol to the different parts of the body where it is necessary.

Overly high LDL cholesterol levels are usually unhealthy since they have the potential to build up and lead to clogging in your arteries. This cholesterol build up can escalate the risk of heart disorders.

Also, HDL cholesterol is regarded as ‘healthier’ as compared to LDL cholesterol since it plays a leading role in flushing out the cholesterol from your body.

Several detailed studies focused on understanding how cholesterol functions in your body imply that it is now well-understood whether high cholesterol levels are always unhealthy.

A recent review of several studies concluded that there was no association between heart diseases and LDL cholesterol.

Though this study had numerous restrictions, it demonstrates that the association between your health and cholesterol is much less established than earlier thought.

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Why Egg Is a Superfood?

Eggs are an excellent source of cholesterol, but studies suggest they don’t have much impact on the cholesterol levels in your body.

Eggs are a dense source of protein, offering a variety of minerals and vitamins, including:

  • Vitamin A
  • Vitamin D
  • Vitamin B And B-12
  • Folate
  • Iodine

Also, eggs are affordable and can be easily included in your daily diet to make it more nutrition-rich and balanced. The best way to eat eggs is to poach or boil them without adding salt.

Eggs enriched with essential omega-3 and sourced from a free-range farm are considered to be the healthiest.

Eating 1 to 3 eggs daily can have various health benefits; however, the benefits tend to vary from person-to-person.

Consuming around three eggs a day can influence simple changes in your cholesterol levels.

[Read: Egg for Weight Loss]

Also, it is not well-established whether or not there’s a recommended upper limit on the number of eggs an individual can consume per day without experiencing any adverse effects. As a result, more research is required in this regard to reach clarity.

However, people with no major health complications or concerns as such can consume eggs in moderate quantities, without experiencing any adverse effects on their cholesterol levels.

What is the Daily Intake of Eggs?

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Dieticians reveal that though eating eggs daily is no harm, it is advised that you mix up your daily diet nicely. Leading dieticians around the world do not recommend having the same food every day.

You must consider rotating your food items every third day. This way, you tend to get an improved balance of nutrients and vitamins from a variety of whole food sources.

Still, for those looking to stick with the same foods daily, eggs are not a bad option. The tremendous benefits you receive from consuming eggs make it special and useful.

Also, implementing eggs to your diet daily is affordable, easy, and simple – as long as it accounts for the total saturated fat recommended in your diet per day.

The right answer to whether or not you can include eggs to your diet daily is that the right number of eggs to be consumed daily depend on the rest of your diet.

An egg contains nearly 80 calories, six grams of protein, and around five grams of fat. Therefore, if you are already taking plenty of fat and protein from other foods you eat, having a 6-egg cheese omelet each morning is not a great idea.

However, if you know you will be away from home or on the go during the day and are not sure as to when you’ll be having your next good source of protein, feel free to crack an extra egg in the pan for breakfast ahead of stepping out of the door.

[ Read: 5 Amazing Egg White Benefits for Perfect Health ]

How Many Eggs Are Not Too Many?

While there is no substantial evidence to rule out as to how many eggs are too many to be consumed a day, eating 3 – 4 eggs a day is considered safe and healthy, provided you balance the calories and nutrients you get from other foods taken along with eggs daily.

It is unlikely (though possible) that consuming more than a specific number of eggs a day could have an adverse effect on your health. In general, eating eggs is entirely safe, even if you have up to 3-4 whole eggs daily, which means around 20 eggs a week.

How Many Eggs a Week Are Safe?

Considering 3 whole eggs daily(2) as the safe limit, you can eat around 20 eggs a week, or even a little more.

Nutritional Value of Eggs

Now that you know eating up to 3 – 4 eggs a day is completely safe and offers a wide range of health benefits, let’s have a look at the nutritional composition eggs have on offer.

A large boiled egg offers:

Vitamin A 6 % of the daily recommended value
Phosphorus 9 % of the daily recommended value
Folate 5 % of the daily recommended value
Vitamin B12 9 % of the daily recommended value
Selenium 22 % of the daily recommended value
Vitamin B5 7 % of the daily recommended value
Vitamin B2 15 % of the daily recommended value

Also, eggs offer a wide range of essential vitamins, minerals, and nutrients such as zinc, calcium, vitamin B6, vitamin K, vitamin E, and vitamin D.

They also offer around 77 calories, 5 grams of healthy fat, and 6 grams of dense protein. 

In case you can find eggs enriched with omega-3 or pasteurized, you can get even more benefits. They are an excellent source of essential omega-3 fat, vitamin E and A, and other nutrients.

Also, there is no established research or evidence that consuming more than 4 eggs a day can be harmful. More research is required to establish an association between overconsumption of eggs and impacted health conditions.

Therefore, eggs can be regarded as one of nature’s perfect foods. More importantly, eggs are easy to prepare, affordable, and go well with a variety of foods.

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