Functional Food Spotlight: Eggs
To eat eggs or to not eat eggs? That has been the debate with the prior concerns of dietary cholesterol increasing blood cholesterol levels. Additionally, eggs may be a food item you have been told or have been staying away from during pregnancy due to concern for foodborne illness. But I am going to ask you, is the benefit worth the risk if you are practicing good food hygiene?
Eggs contain several functional nutrients including choline, vitamin A, lutein & zeaxanthin. They also contain high levels of selenium and iodine, which can play an important role in thyroid function and combating oxidative stress. Specifically, eggs can be used as functional foods in fertility, pregnancy, postpartum, and during the postmenopausal timeframes during a woman’s life. Let’s take a look at the nutritional breakdown.
Nutritional Content: 1 egg
Calories: 70 Calories
Macros:
Fat: 5 grams
Saturated Fat: 1.5 g
Monounsaturated Fat: 2g
Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g
Cholesterol: 206mg
Carbohydrates: <1 gram
Protein: 6 grams
Micros:
Calcium: 24 mg
Iron: 0.835 mg
Magnesium: 5.5 mg
Phosphorus: 92 mg
Potassium: 66 mg
Sodium: 65 mg
Zinc: 0.62 mg
Selenium: 15.6 µg
Iodine: 24.7 µg
Thiamin: 0.031 mg
Riboflavin: 0.199 mg
Vitamin B-6: 0.03 mg
Folate: 26.5 mg
Choline: 134 mg
Vitamin B12: 0.41 µg
Vitamin A: 90 µg
Retinol: 89.5 µg
Beta Cryptoxanthin: 6.5 µg
Lutein + Zeaxanthin: 252 µg
Vitamin E (alpha-tocopherol): 0.525 mg
Vitamin D: 1.25 µg
Vitamin K (phylloquinone): 0.15 µg
Let’s dive into the benefits for women throughout their life cycle regarding fertility, pregnancy, postpartum, and postmenopause.
Thinking about having a baby in the near future? Incorporate eggs into your breakfast rotation! One of the main benefits of eggs regarding fertility is their vitamin A content. Vitamin A helps support fertility by improving embryo survival and optimal conditions for implantation and is utilized for embryonic and placental structures. Additionally, vitamin A deficiency has been associated with higher follicular stimulating hormone seen in premature ovarian insufficiency. Thus, to improve fertility, ensuring adequate intake of vitamin A may help improve your implantation outcomes.
Pregnancy + eggs = building a healthy baby! Yes, there are several other foods that help with building a healthy baby, but eggs are our current spotlight food. Eggs are a rich source of choline along with vitamin A. Choline helps with placental function, fetal brain development, prevention of neural tube defects, cognitive function, reducing the risk of developing stress related chronic conditions, and improving DHA biomarkers when consumed with DHA supplementation. Not only does choline help fetal development, but it may help reduce the risk of developing complications such as preeclampsia and intrauterine growth restriction. Vitamin A, which is found in eggs, will help reduce the risk of preterm birth, improve neonatal weight, and decrease risk of neonatal defects. Additionally, vitamin A is used in the development of fetal limbs, lungs, eyes, ears, and heart as well as gene expression of your growing fetus.
If you are reading this as a postpartum mom or preparing for your postpartum phase, get eggs on the menu not only for your new baby but also to support your healing! The research shows that every egg ingested during the first six weeks of lactation can increase ovalbumin concentration in breast milk and improve markers of tolerance in infants being breastfed. Additionally, for all the moms out there, as you are going through some more tremendous body changes and healing, Vitamin A plays an important role in collagen synthesis and stimulates the expression of TGF-Beta and IGF to help the healing and repair following delivery.
Now here’s some egg scoop for you, who are in the perimenopausal to postmenopausal period! If you are in this age group, you probably have been on a low-fat, fat-free diet in the past eliminating or reducing the intake of eggs (that is if you were a dieter). Well, stay tuned because you may just realize that eggs are needed! As you enter into this phase of life, your estrogen product decreases. This also means that your body’s ability to make choline naturally (outside of eating choline-rich foods) decreases and your dietary needs increase. Now why is this significant? Well, there has been research completed on the role of a high choline diet in postmenopausal women who are at higher risk of developing conditions like non-alcoholic fatty liver disease due to genetic variations in a gene called PEMT. Women who ate a choline-rich diet or had estrogen replacement therapy had a lower risk for developing NAFLD and a low choline intake has also been associated with increased fibrosis in postmenopausal women with NAFLD (so yes, EAT some eggs!). Another concern as we age as women is a worsening cardiometabolic profile - i.e. cholesterol. Well, consuming 2 whole eggs per day in women who are postmenopausal and overweight can improve cholesterol efflux capacity without changing ApoA-1, total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, or HDL cholesterol. Thus, improving the functionality of HDL. I know…. Eggs. Beneficial!? Yes! And top it off, eggs also contain two antioxidants lutein and zeaxanthin. A high lutein intake may help reduce the risk of age-related macular degeneration and may help lower DNA damage caused by oxidative stress in postmenopausal women!
If I haven’t convinced you yet that eggs can be used as a functional food, let me just list off some more general roles and benefits of eggs through choline and vitamin A:
Choline:
Methylation of homocysteine to form methionine (as a methyl group donor)
Lipid transport from the liver and cholinergic neurotransmission
In older adults, high choline intake may improve strength gains
Post-ischemic stroke, higher intakes can lower the risk of cognitive impairment and lower the risk of depression
Higher intake in middle-aged adults can improve verbal memory.
Vitamin A
Utilization of iron and helps to mobilize the storage forms of iron.
Plays a role in the immune system to maintain adequate levels of natural killer cells and B lymphocyte growth and function
Needed for vision
Retinol may assist in combating inflammatory side effects of MS such as depression and fatigue
So let’s cook up some eggs to help support you (and your fetus, if pregnant)! Want to learn more about nutrition during your fertility, pregnancy, or postpartum journey? Check out our Nourishing New Beginnings program!
