K V VENKATASUBRAMANIAN
Science Journalist
Consuming excess eggs could raise your blood sugar levels abnormally, increasing your risk of diabetes, a team of researchers cautions.
People who regularly consumed one or more eggs per day (equivalent to 50 gm) increased their risk of diabetes by 60 percent, they report in a study. The effect was more pronounced in women than in men.
The University of South Australian (UniSA) conducted the longitudinal (1991 to 2009) study in partnership with the China Medical University, and Qatar University, to assess egg consumption in a large sample of Chinese adults.
Epidemiologist and public health expert, UniSA’s Dr Ming Li, says the rise of diabetes is a growing concern, especially in China where changes to the traditional Chinese diet are impacting health. “Diet is a known and modifiable factor that contributes to the onset Type 2 diabetes, so understanding the range of dietary factors that might impact the growing prevalence of the disease is important,” he says.
While the association between eating eggs and diabetes is often debated, this study has aimed to assess people’s long-term egg consumption of eggs and their risk of developing diabetes, as determined by fasting blood glucose, Li says.
“What we discovered was that higher long-term egg consumption (greater than 38 grams per day) increased the risk of diabetes among Chinese adults by approximately 25 percent,” he says. The findings are published in the British Journal of Nutrition.
