Chicken eggs: how much can adults and children eat per day, consumption norms

The egg is truly considered one of the most nutritious foods in the whole world, because it contains all the necessary nutrients that are simply necessary for the formation of a living organism. In this article you will learn about how many eggs you can eat per day without harm to the body.

At one time, eggs received a bad reputation thanks to the cholesterol contained in the yolk. One medium egg contains about 185 mg of cholesterol, which is more than 60% of the recommended daily value. This is why most athletes separate the yolks from the whites, fearing for their cholesterol levels, which can lead to cardiovascular disease. But in fact, not everything is as bad as it might seem at first glance, let's figure it out.

What are the benefits of chicken eggs?

They include many important vitamins - B, C, E and D, as well as beneficial amino acids. Microelements also take place, for example:

phosphorus – ensures normal hair growth and bone strength;
iron is the basis for the synthesis of red blood cells;
iodine is the main component for the normal functioning of the thyroid gland;
selenium is a natural antioxidant that fights the negative effects of free radicals;

Cholesterol in human blood

Cholesterol is a special substance similar to beeswax. It plays a vital role in metabolism.

Cholesterol is part of the membrane of cells, brain, and nerves. It produces special hormones, exactly the necessary male hormone - testosterone. It is the blood that transports cholesterol throughout the human body.

As a rule, if the concentration of this substance exceeds the norm, then atherosclerotic plaques will form and deposit on the walls of blood vessels. In the future, they contribute to poor blood flow, causing various problems and diseases in the human body.

Cholesterol is produced in most cases in the liver - 80%. Everything else enters the body with food.

Cholesterol is found in very small amounts in plant foods.

When dietary cholesterol enters the body, it is absorbed into the small intestine and subsequently enters the liver. The liver continues to use this substance as cholesterol. It is the liver that regulates cholesterol levels in the blood and the body as a whole. Remember, high cholesterol levels contribute to the occurrence of stroke and heart attack.

However, the appearance of heart problems can be influenced not only by high cholesterol, but also by other factors and diseases. Cholesterol is very important in the human body, and only in large quantities can it cause harm. Cholesterol is also extremely important for cell renewal.

If you reduce your consumption of meat, chicken, and dairy products, your cholesterol levels will decrease in the future. A low-carb diet also helps very well, normalizing the level.

The main cause of high cholesterol is poor and unhealthy diet. And also lack of physical activity. Also, elevated levels can be hereditary.

You should not get too carried away with sweets, and also eat mayonnaise, chips, and fried foods. An active lifestyle helps to normalize the entire body as a whole.

Helps lower cholesterol:

Eating low-calorie foods;
Eat more fruits and vegetables;
If you are obese, go on a diet;
Limit your intake of animal fats;
Consume sea fish;
Rejection of bad habits.

Age also affects the amount of cholesterol. It only increases with age. You should also monitor the medications you take.

How many eggs can a child and teenager eat per day?

Childhood is a special age for nutrition; it is necessary to carefully choose foods, otherwise a fragile body can easily catch an infection or allergy. Eggs are no exception in this regard, and it is best to give a homemade egg with a clearly defined orange yolk.

To protect your child’s body from harm, it is worth remembering a number of rules:

It takes longer to cook homemade eggs than store-bought ones;
buy only eggs with strong shells without visible damage or softness;
Before cooking, be sure to rinse with running water;
before cooking, check whether the egg is fresh, just put it in cold salted water, if the egg has become vertical, then it is about 1-3 weeks old, fresh eggs will take a horizontal position within 1-2 days;

The number of eggs taken depending on the age of the child should be as follows:

0.5 – 1 year – 0.5 yolks (2-3 times a week)
1-3 years – 0.5 eggs (3 times a week)
3-7 years – 1 egg (2-3 times a week)
7-16 years – 2 eggs (2-3 times a week)

Top 7 Foods High in Cholesterol

According to some therapists, liver, shrimp and eggs contain more cholesterol than fruits and vegetables. But this is not as dangerous as eating sausages, sausages, cakes, fatty meats and lard. These foods contain the most bad cholesterol.

So, to reduce cholesterol levels, you should exclude from your diet:

Butter, margarine.
Lard, smoked meats.
Cakes.
Mayonnaise.
Fast food.
Chicken yolk.
Roast.

Cholesterol is good for brain function, but only in small amounts. Choose quality products.

If you lead a healthy lifestyle and eat right, you can avoid problems. Replace frying with steaming. Include more vegetables and fruits in your diet: carrots, citruses, cabbage, apricots.

Exercising to burn fat will help lower your cholesterol levels. Eat oatmeal with fruit for breakfast instead of a sausage sandwich. Oatmeal also contains healthy fiber and fights cholesterol.

How many eggs can an adult eat per day?

There is an opinion that you should not eat more than 3-4 eggs a day, otherwise the amount of cholesterol supplied from the yolk can negatively affect the functioning of the cardiovascular system. The concerns are understandable, because 1 egg contains 5 grams. fat and 200 mg. cholesterol.

However, scientists have proven that eating 1-3 whole eggs daily:

the amount of high-density lipoproteins (good cholesterol) increases;
triglycerides, the main sources of atherosclerosis and heart disease, are reduced;
the concentration of lutein and other antioxidants increases.

From all that has been said, adults can drink 1-3 chicken eggs daily, bringing the maximum limit to 21 pieces. in Week.

Eggs and health

For healthy people leading an active lifestyle, eggs are a real treasure trove of health.

They are very rich in antioxidants and a number of substances necessary for the functioning of the visual system. In particular, an egg-rich diet protects against cataracts and macular degeneration, which are the leading causes of blindness in old age.

Choline contained in eggs is vital for the functioning of all cellular systems.

High-quality animal protein supports healthy bones and helps muscles maintain good tone.

In addition, eggs quickly fill you up, which helps you maintain a normal weight and even lose weight.

How many eggs can an athlete eat per day?

Eggs for fitness and bodybuilding are a good source of natural protein. However, this does not mean that they can be consumed unlimitedly.

Even for athletes during the period of active weight gain, the norm of eggs is 10 pcs.;

You can take up to 22 egg whites per day, breaking it into 3-4 servings.

It is worth remembering that 1 whole egg (50 g) contains:

Calories – 54;
Carbohydrates – 0.4 g.
Proteins – 6 gr.
Fats – 5 gr.

Accordingly, 1 egg white contains 6 grams. squirrel.

You can't eat eggs if you have diabetes.

Yes and no!

People with type 2 diabetes should limit their consumption of eggs due to their high content of saturated fat. Some doctors even advise completely excluding them from the diet due to the risk of gaining excess weight - which is completely undesirable with this disease.

However, a new 2020 study published in the journal Food and Function confirmed that regular egg consumption improves blood glucose levels in patients with prediabetes and type 2 diabetes. According to the authors of the work, consuming one chicken egg per day may be beneficial for them.

How many eggs can you eat per day when pregnant?

Food for pregnant women, as well as for children, should be carefully selected. Thanks to the choline content in eggs, the baby in the womb develops mentally, protecting the fetus from various abnormalities.

If you eat 1-2 eggs a day, you should not be afraid of cholesterol; in such quantities it will not harm either the expectant mother or her baby. But the vitamins and minerals included in the composition will only benefit.

The main thing is that there is no allergy to eggs or other discomfort when eating them.

Beneficial features

Considering the uniqueness of this food product and its usefulness for humans, I would like to say: “Eat as much as you want.” It has a rich composition, has a beneficial effect on the liver, increases the synthesis of antioxidants, reduces triglyceride levels, and stimulates intestinal motility. Knowing how many pieces per day you are allowed to eat, you can get the maximum benefit from them.

Nutritionists allow limited consumption of protein and yolk. For allergies and certain diseases, the therapist may prescribe shell powder. Every component in this product is rich in value.

Doctors' recommendations

As they say, as many people as there are, so many opinions, so the opinions of doctors from different areas regarding the number of eggs taken vary slightly:

WHO

In their opinion, cholesterol is considered safe when consumed no more than 300 mg. per day. Since 1 yolk contains about 200 mg, this means you can eat 1.5 eggs during the day.

Cardiologists

According to studies over 14 years, which included 120 thousand people, the daily norm was determined to be 6-7 eggs per week.

Nutritionists

The opinions of various experts in the field of nutrition agree that eating 10 whole eggs a week will in no way negatively affect your health. You should be wary of parallel products served with eggs - sausage, cheese, meat components, which are cooked in boiling oil and will bring harmful toxins and carcinogens to the body.

Be careful with eggs!

Eggs contain not only cholesterol deposits, but also other dangers. I really don’t want to talk about such sad things when we are talking about a tasty and beloved product by everyone, but “who is forewarned is forearmed.”

Sad statistics say that in the United States alone, 48 million illnesses caused by food poisoning are reported annually. Moreover, about 3,000 cases end in the death of the victims. Of course, not only the low-quality eggs themselves are to blame for this, but careless handling of them also contributes.

The main “generator” of food poisoning is catering establishments. And the point here is not so much the quality of the products, but rather the violation of food preparation technology. One of the most important guarantees of safety is heat treatment (cooking, frying, stewing). The temperature regime must be observed very strictly, especially if you are preparing a large dish.

To check the temperature of meat and egg dishes, you need to use a special thermometer, which, moreover, must be thoroughly cleaned after each use. Such equipment is quite expensive, and the procedure itself takes time, so cafes and restaurants often neglect this and determine the degree of readiness “by eye” or “by the clock.” But if the central part of the dish is not cooked enough (done, etc.), pathogenic bacteria begin to actively multiply under the influence of heat, and mass poisoning is “ready.”

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Daily requirement of eggs for children and adults

This figure is always individual and depends on several factors: firstly, what you want to achieve by introducing eggs into your diet. The main significant component of this product is protein. A person who is exposed to high physical activity can and should, a priori, eat more eggs than someone who leads a sedentary lifestyle in order to stimulate muscle growth. If you just need to increase your protein level, but don’t want any more meat or fish, you can take a few eggs, but less than for an athlete. If the question is about losing weight, then, again, the numbers will be different.

Secondly, the state of health is important. In addition to protein, a chicken egg contains a lot of fat and cholesterol, which are present in the yolk. If a person who has problems with the hepatobiliary system eats too many eggs (yolks), this will contribute to the active outflow of bile and can cause a lot of unpleasant consequences.

An important rule: if you are losing weight, consume exclusively egg whites.

Do not forget to monitor the size of the eggs if you are watching your figure: there is a difference between an egg of 40 g and 65 g (category 2 and choice). Basically, instructions on how many eggs an adult or child can eat per day are given for an average egg weight of 50 g. General values:

for children - no more than 10-15 pieces. per week, ideally divided evenly across all days;
for men – 3-4 pcs. per day in the presence of physical activity;
women – 2-3 pcs. in a day.

Such volumes of eggs do not affect cholesterol levels, but it is worth understanding that we are talking about boiled eggs or those used for omelettes. If you decide to fry them in oil and add a slice of bacon, you end up with a fattier dish that puts a strain on the digestive system and is less vascular friendly. And it is advisable that you do not consume the indicated daily amount of eggs every day, but make “fluctuations”: for example, on Monday you ate 2 pieces, on Tuesday you did without them, on Wednesday you ate 1 piece. The exception is athletes who are gaining muscle mass.

How long do eggs stay fresh?

The freshness of eggs directly depends not only on the timing, but also on the conditions of their storage. They need to be kept in the refrigerator; otherwise, they are considered stale after just a week.

Please note: it is advisable to place eggs in refrigerator compartments with the pointed end down. This reduces the pressure on the natural air gap between the shell and the protein, which slightly increases the shelf life (such eggs can be stored and eaten for 3 weeks).

It is dangerous to store eggs with cracked shells, since there is a high risk of pathogenic bacteria entering the contents. If even a slight unpleasant odor appears, the egg should not be eaten even after long heat treatment.

The color of the yolks varies from pale yellow to deep orange or reddish. You can often hear the opinion that eggs with bright yolks are healthier. This is wrong. This feature is due only to the composition of the feed that the bird received.

Are eggs digestible well?

There is an opinion that eggs are a “heavy” food that is not very well digested and places a high burden on the digestive system. This statement is not true.

The raw product and soft-boiled eggs are easily digested within 1-2 hours. Denatured protein (coagulated during heat treatment) is characterized by relatively poor digestibility, so it will take the body about 3 hours to digest a well-fried or hard-boiled egg. It should be noted that meat fibers are digested much worse, even if there are diet cutlets and steamed meatballs.