If you haven’t heard the news, the Vegan Valentine’s Day Dance in Berkeley is going to be a blast.
We have a HUGE list of valuable raffle prizes to be won. If you buy your ticket before February 6, you will receive 2 free raffle tickets. Check them out!
As foods go, eggs are very high in cholesterol. Back when it was thought that eating cholesterol caused an increase in blood cholesterol, people with high cholesterol or heart disease were warned away from eggs. But then it was found that while some people’s cholesterol levels rise significantly from eating cholesterol, most people’s do not. So where does that leave eggs?
The findings have been somewhat mixed over the years. The most recent paper I found was a 2008 report from the Physicians’ Health Study (a trial to study low dose aspirin and beta-carotene’s effects on the primary prevention of cardiovascular disease and cancer among US male physicians) (1). They found the following when comparing consumption of 7+ eggs per week to less than 1 per week:
These results were adjusted for age, body mass index, smoking, hypertension, vitamin intake, alcohol consumption, vegetable consumption, breakfast cereal consumption, physical activity, treatment group, atrial fibrillation, diabetes mellitus, hypercholesterolemia, and parental history of premature myocardial infarction.
The authors of this paper reviewed the previous literature on eggs and mortality:
“Limited and inconsistent data have been reported on the association between egg consumption and coronary heart disease. Among 514 Australian Aborigines, consumption of 2+ eggs per week was associated with a 2.6-fold increased risk of coronary heart disease in a prospective analysis (2). Mann et al. (3) reported a 2.7-fold increased risk of death with a higher egg consumption (6+ per week) among British subjects. In contrast, other large prospective cohorts with longer follow-ups did not observe any association between egg consumption and CHD or mortality (4-7).”
They discussed other research showing 7+ eggs increased the risk of heart disease in men and women with diabetes (5).
In conclusion, it appears that in comparison to less than one egg per week, eating 7+ egg per week could increase your risk of early death, especially if you have type 2 diabetes.
References
1. Djousse L, Gaziano JM. Egg consumption in relation to cardiovascular disease and mortality: the Physicians’ Health Study. Am J Clin Nutr. 2008 Apr;87(4):964-9.
2. Burke V, Zhao Y, Lee AH, et al. Health-related behaviours as predictors of mortality and morbidity in Australian Aborigines. Prev Med 2007;44:135–42. [PubMed: 17069878]
3. Mann JI, Appleby PN, Key TJ, Thorogood M. Dietary determinants of ischaemic heart disease in health conscious individuals. Heart 1997;78:450–5. [PubMed: 9415002]
4. Dawber TR, Nickerson RJ, Brand FN, Pool J. Eggs, serum cholesterol, and coronary heart disease. Am J Clin Nutr 1982;36:617–25. [PubMed: 7124663]
5. Hu FB, Stampfer MJ, Rimm EB, et al. A prospective study of egg consumption and risk of cardiovascular disease in men and women. JAMA 1999;281:1387–94. [PubMed: 10217054]
6. Nakamura Y, Okamura T, Tamaki S, et al. Egg consumption, serum cholesterol, and cause-specific and all-cause mortality: the National Integrated Project for Prospective Observation of Noncommunicable Disease and Its Trends in the Aged, 1980 (NIPPON DATA80). Am J Clin Nutr 2004;80:58–63. [PubMed: 15213028]
7. Nakamura Y, Iso H, Kita Y, et al. Egg consumption, serum total cholesterol concentrations and coronary heart disease incidence: Japan Public Health Center-based prospective study. Br J Nutr 2006;96:921–8. [PubMed: 17092383]
I just updated VeganHealth.org’s articles on bones and homocysteine with the following:
Vitamin B12 and Bone Mineral Density
Taking vitamin B12 might also be important for bone mineral density.
A 2009 cross-sectional study of lacto-ovo vegetarian women in Slovakia found that their higher homocysteine (16.5 vs. 12.5 µmol/l; 78% vs. 45% were elevated) and lower vitamin B12 levels (246 vs. 302 pmol/l; 47% vs. 28% were deficient) were associated with significantly lower bone mineral density in the femur (1). Participants were not allowed to have been taking vitamin or mineral supplements. The researchers did not measure calcium intake or vitamin D status.
You can read more about vitamin B12 and homocysteine here.
1. Krivosikova Z, Krajcovicova-Kudlackova M, Spustova V, Stefikova K, Valachovicova M, Blazicek P, Nemcova T. The association between high plasma
homocysteine levels and lower bone mineral density in Slovak women: the impact of vegetarian diet. Eur J Nutr. 2009 Oct 7.
I just updated Another Internet Soy Article with the following:
A 2009 report from the Shanghai Breast Cancer Survival Study showed that women with a prior diagnosis of breast cancer (including estrogen-positive), who ate more soy, had lower rates of death and cancer recurrence (12). The study followed women for an average of 3.9 years after a diagnosis of breast cancer. The researchers measured a beneficial effect of up to 11 grams of soy protein per day. Table 3 shows the results.
12. Shu XO, Zheng Y, Cai H, Gu K, Chen Z, Zheng W, Lu W. Soy food intake and breast cancer survival. JAMA. 2009 Dec 9;302(22):2437-43.
After the posts I made regarding the article, A Whole Diet Approach to Building Better Bones, in the Vegetarian Voice, two people contacted me to say that the World Health Organization recommends more than the 400 to 500 mg of calcium per day as stated in the article. According to Table 4.2 on p. 71 in their document, Vitamin and Mineral Requirements in Human Nutrition, Second Edition (2004), the WHO recommends:
1,300 mg for ages 10 to 18
1,000 mg for women 19 to menopause
1,300 mg for women past menopause
1,000 mg for men 19 to 65
1,300 mg for men ages 65+
And if you missed them, there have been many comments in response to these two posts (link, link).
Erik Marcus of Vegan.com has just posted his latest writing, The Year in Meat: 2009. No one bashes the meat industry more eloquently than Erik!
Today, Vegan Outreach unveiled a slideshow to share with everyone what we accomplished in 2009. You can see it by clicking here.
It will soon be too late to get a tax deduction for a year-end donation to Vegan Outreach! Our end-of-year fundraising determines most of what we will be able to accomplish during the winter and spring school semesters. The more donations we have, the more students we reach.
In addition to being part of giving a hard-hitting booklet to almost 1 million students a year about how animals are treated on modern farms, a donation to Vegan Outreach indirectly supports much of the nutrition information you get here by way of the work I do maintaining VeganHealth.org. Not many organizations would support public, no-holds-barred discussions of vegan nutrition, but we believe these candid discussions can only help reduce animal suffering in the end.
Thank you for anything you can give!
You can donate to Vegan Outreach here.
Happy New Year!
Jack Norris, RD
Because the comments section to my post, Comments on Bone Health Article in the Vegetarian Voice, has gotten so long, I decided to create a new post that includes Dr. Amy Joy Lanou’s response and my follow-up.
From Dr. Lanou:
“I appreciate that you have taken the time to read our article and critique it. I fear, though, that you may have missed the main point. Our overall point is that the literature is pointing to the benefits to bone of a dietary pattern that high in fruits, vegetables and other plant-matter and low protein from animal sources along with adequate weight bearing physical activity to stimulate new bone cell formation. In our book (Building Bone Vitality) we highlight the importance of consuming the at least 17 other nutrients that are important to bone (including adequate, but not excessive protein and vitamin D among 15 others) as part of a healthy dietary pattern based on whole foods from plant sources.
“The single nutrient, calcium, or single food (cow’s milk) approach to osteoporosis prevention that we have grown up with and are still being sold is not working and may even be counterproductive. Vegan nutritionists arguing over whether the actual amount of recommended calcium should be 400 to 500 mg/day as the World Health Organization recommends for avoiding osteoporosis, >525mg a day as the Appleby and Key study would suggest, or the 700 or 800 mg/day that Jack Norris, RD recommends is part of the problem….not part of the solution. We are still focusing on that same single nutrient.
“I agree that the literature is not clear on what the exact optimum amount of calcium that an individual vegan may need is…in fact, the “right amount” quite likely has to do with the persons overall dietary pattern, activity level and other individual characteristics. It is, however, quite clear to me from a broad review of the literature that vegans, vegetarians, and omnivores alike are not getting a measurable benefit to hip fracture from pushing calcium intakes via dairy products and calcium supplements from 1000 to 1200 to 1500 to 2000 mg a day as some professionals recommend. I purposefully chose not to make a personal (albeit expert) recommendation for the level of calcium for vegans to consume but instead chose to go with the recommendation of an authoritative source (the WHO) as a useful starting point. I have no argument against a person targeting a calcium intake of 800 milligrams in a whole foods vegan diet (though I would be surprised if it did help prevent fractures more than targeting 500 mg/day calcium intake.) I would suggest, however, that people taking 1000 mg of supplemental or dairy calcium a day (or more) to prevent osteoporosis stop doing so and look instead at putting their efforts instead into moving to a dietary and lifestyle pattern that supports bone health.
“Please keep in mind that Building Bone Vitality and the article in question were both written to help vegetarians and omnivores alike to understand that milk drinking is not necessary for healthy bones and to urge people to move to a diet built from health-giving and bone-supporting foods the fruits, vegetables and other plant foods and away from a diet that is built from highly processed foods, meat and cheeses. I understand that our message may not be detailed or specific enough for some clinicians and long time vegans. (I appreciate that clinicians are working to make sense out of the research and make more specific recommendations than we have.) I hope your readers will forgive us for this lack of specificity if we manage to do some good with the message (for human health, for the animals, and for the environment) along the way.
“A couple other points of clarification:
“We do address the Appleby study in the book, but not in the article. Dr. McDougall has written about the Appleby study as well and he notes that none of the fractures experienced by the vegans in this study were fractures of the hip compared to 30 in the meat eaters, 9 in the fish eaters, and 14 in the vegetarians (dairy). Hip and spine fractures are arguably the most important end point for osteoporotic fracture. Dr. McDougall suggests and this is confirmed to some degree by correspondence with Dr. Key that the younger, thinner and more highly active vegans may have had more injuries due to vigorous physical activity.
“The meta-analysis of protein intake on bone health by Darling et al published in AJCN in 2009 fails to find either benefit or a lack of benefit of protein on bone. If one approaches this study from the perspective of trying to understand the relationship between dietary patterns and bone, this result is not surprising. Again these researchers are trying to understand relationship of the single nutrient (this time) protein, in the context of widely varying dietary patterns. It makes sense then that any effect of this single nutrient might be obscured in a meta-analysis since other potentially important dietary factors likely also varied widely (fruit and vegetable intake, potassium, vitamin D, sodium, etc.).”
Dr. Lanou,
Thank you for your response. I appreciate your goal of helping humans, animals, and the environment.
I have a few more comments below.
Jack
“Hip and spine fractures are arguably the most important end point for osteoporotic fracture. Dr. McDougall suggests and this is confirmed to some degree by correspondence with Dr. Key that the younger, thinner and more highly active vegans may have had more injuries due to vigorous physical activity.”
It is interesting that the vegans did not have any hip fractures. However, the study did adjust for physical activity and age, so those differences should not explain much of the results. And to my knowledge, there is no reason to think that the lifestyles of the vegans getting more than 525 mg of calcium were any less active than the vegans getting less than 525 mg, yet those getting more than 525 mg did not have a higher fracture rate.
The cross-sectional studies on vegans’ bone health have, for the most part, not shown them to have better bone health than omnivores. Those studies are cited here.
Thus, to date, there is very little evidence that a vegan diet helps prevent osteoporosis.
I have not seen a study, that tracked calcium intake over time, that showed people with intakes of 500 mg or less have less fractures than those with higher intakes.
I realize that Dr. Lanou’s point is that we need to take a holistic approach to bone health and not focus on one nutrient. But even holistic approaches only affect bone on a molecular level; if there isn’t enough calcium to maintain bones, it doesn’t matter if the approach is holistic or not.
Because of the harm it causes cows, I very much want to see an end to the dairy industry. But it could harm cows and humans just as much if, at the same time, we tell them that it is not important to concern themselves with calcium. In my opinion, the evidence doesn’t justify taking this risk.
Thanks to the Vegetarian Society of Hawaii, you can now watch a video of my talk Vegan Nutrition: What Does the Science Say on-line. Click here.
A special thank you to Dr. William Harris for filming and putting the video together!
Hi, Jack. Have you ever heard about the role lutein, found in highest amounts in kale and spinach, plays in vision or eye health? I just watched a video (it’s 23, second from bottom on p.1) by Robyn Openshaw (the self-named Green Smoothie Girl) and she claims that she had really bad eyesight in college. Since then she’s had two to three handfuls of raw spinach a day (in smoothies) and she says that now her eyesight is 20/15. On another site, it says you’re supposed to cook the greens to release the lutein, so now I don’t know what to think.
Robyn Openshaw is misinformed about vitamin B12, saying in Part 2 of her GSG-SMOOTHIE 2.0 video that you can get it from brewer’s yeast, aloe vera, or a steak once every three years. Whether green smoothies improved her eyesight, I really have no idea. If they did, it could be any number of things in them, not just lutein.
All that said…Yes, lutein is thought to be good for protecting the eyes. I did a little research to see if lutein is better absorbed from cooked or uncooked spinach and it appears to be better absorbed from cooked, though the difference is not great according to this abstract.
It also appears that luetin is fat-soluble which should mean that eating some fat with foods high in lutein would increase its absorption. Fat soluble molecules are often better absorbed when cooked, but the one abstract above, the best one I could find, indicated that this is not the case for lutein.