NUTRITION - Recent studies challenge the popular belief that eggs are highly nutritious - A case against the consumption of eggs.
Is egg vegetarian or non-vegetarian is not a question more important than whether it is good or bad.Let us dwell upon this latter question, obviously to address ourselves to former.
The egg consumption in India during 1950s was about five million. In 1996 it is about 10 billion according to official ` statistics. What caused this phenomenal increase in egg consumption (36 per cent) in a society which is predominantly vegetarian?
The ’credit’ must undoubtedly go to the sustained high pressure advertisements in the media through the patronage of National Egg Co-ordination Committee, the apex body of poultry business.
Almost all the leading periodicals, magazines (except, of course science journals) both in English and vernacular languages have come out with colorful advertisements extolling the ’quality’ of eggs as the ’multi-vitamin capsule', "mummy’s best choice for the computer conscious child" etc.,
(In fact, there is no direct relationship between a particular food stuff and a particular body function). The propaganda has to a great brain-washed consumers to believe that egg is the best food now available.
(In fact, there is no direct relationship between a particular food stuff and a particular body function). The propaganda has to a great brain-washed consumers to believe that egg is the best food now available.
Let us now examine, with the help of recent findings/ studies in the field of medicine and nutritional science, how much substance is there in these advertisements.
A typical advertisement on egg in any leading magazine says that it is very nutritious, rich in minerals, vitamins and protein, that it is a multivitamin capsule containing Vitamin ’A’, ’B’ and 'D’ and all that. This claim is a half-truth and is distorted also.
The fact is that egg can be taken mainly as a source of protein and not of vitamins. But the advertisement creates an impression that egg contains all nutrients that a human body needs, irrespective of age. In nature no single item of food contains all the nutrients. It must be gathered with wide variety of food stuffs which include carbohydrate sources, protein sources and some vitamin & mineral sources. So a judicious combination is a palatable balanced food.
Coming to the nutritional value of egg, it contains per 100 gms. wt. about 13.6 percent of protein, 13.3 per cent of saturated fat as against any dhal (pulses) traditionally used m Indian household, which contains 24 percent of protein, 1.3 per cent of unsaturated fat etc. Egg cannot be considered as a main source of protein which is essential for growth.
Secondly the claim about eggs as a vitamin source is also false and the functional role of vitamins mentioned in the advertisement is also similarly wrong and misleading. An egg contains about 1200 LU. of vitamin ’A’ as against 8,000 to 10,000 I.U. in drumstick leaves and 10,000 to 12,000 l.U. in coriander leaves which are not only cheap but contain other nutrients also. Vitamin A is sufficiently available in all leafy vegetables and carrots in the pure natural form known as beta carotene.
About Vitamin ’D’, the claim in the advertisement is again misleading. Vitamin 'D’ is normally manufactured by the fat in our body under the skin with the help of sunlight, which is so abundant(Thanks to Surya Deva) in our country. There is no necessity of gulping this vitamin through food on payment.
The advertisement on egg is again false about Vitamin ‘B’ which is an essential water soluble substance required for nervous system to sustain. This Vitamin is a complex group consisting of Vitamin ‘B’ to Vitamin B6-B12 which are normally found in cereals and certain vegetables. This complex vitamin is found in Egg only in microscopic traces and the proportionis to be treated as nil.
Fermented food like dosa and idly provide ample Vitamin B group - An egg now costing around 3-5 rupee is much costlier than pulses and vegetables for the quantity of nutrients available and hence commercially not viable and not preferable to harmless alternative in pulses free from saturated fat and cholesterol.
What is strikingly significant in the advertisement (normal food stuffs do not require any advertisement) about the egg is the complete and deliberate suppression of facts that classify egg as a very harmful food stuff.
Each egg weighing about 100 gms contains about 450 to 500 mg of cholesterol, a dangerously large quantity, a substance conclusively proved as responsible for heart attacks, strokes and other cardiovascular diseases (for comparison : the Quantity of cholesterol in one cup of milk is 5 mg/ 100 mg., in meat around 125 mg. and in brain & lever around 1000 mg).
According to a number of studies conducted recently, consumption of each egg adds about 5 mg of cholesterol into the blood.
It is medically established that cholesterol in excess of 250 mg. in our system will predispose cardiovascular disease leading to heart attacks and strokes. Thus regular consumption of egg as recommended in the advertisement is fraught with danger and will certainly be detrimental to one’s health. As a matter of fact egg is to be completely excluded from the diet of middle aged and elderly people.
lt is not just this. The saturated fat in egg in large quantity, almost equal to that of its protein will provide a strong base for the cholesterol to deposit in the arteries. One of the most valuable discovery is the role of an amino acid called methlonine in promoting heart disease and which destroys Vitamin in our body. This is found in egg like meat.
These vitamins are fat soluble and hence in excess. If consumed, these are not removed from the body but retained to cause many harmful side effects. Excess consumption of Vitamin D (this becomes excess if consumed through food regularly as it is manufactured in the body by the incidence of sunlight) will cause kidney and bladder stones by crystallizing calcium which becomes again excess due to milk consumption and interaction with uric acid. However, consumption of Vitamin A in its pure form through leafy vegetables becomes limited to the body’s needs due to its bulk.
Again, each egg has about 25,000 to 30,000 micropores on its outer shell for oxygen transportation to the embryo. This serves as inlets to the microbes that contaminate it if stored in open at a temperature above 30 degrees. So, egg becomes unfit for consumption within 48 hours of storage if not stored in the refrigerators. We know how egg is now being stored and sold in our cities and towns.
There is yet another important observation about egg which makes it unsuitable for regular consumption. That is about its carbohydrate and fiber factors. Carbohydrate is the fuel in food and it is essential to any staple food to produce energy. Since egg does not contain carbohydrate and hence does not contribute to produce enough calorific value for sustenance and stamina as compared to cereals and pulses. (100 gms of ground nuts = 549 calories, 1 egg = 170 calories.)
Besides all these inherent drawbacks and defects that brands egg as a harmful food, there are many more dangerous aspects involved in its mass production due to factory farming of poultry birds.
In almost all modern poultry farms employing broillers, hens are given large quantities of antibiotics, harmones and tranquillisers in their feed to ward off animal diseases which are easily transmitted to humans and to make the birds lay more eggs, to increase their weight and to prevent them from fighting when stacked in a congested enclosures of artificial lighting.
Particularly the antibiotic gentamycin which is widely used in poultry feed is transmitted in traces into the egg is known to damage kidnet filters. It is established that gentamycin is a branded nephrotoxin ,that damage our kidneys.
Acknowledgement :
Article Courtesy : Deccan Herald - 23/3/1996
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