The Egg Nutrition Center funds research to examine eggs' role in the American diet to better understand relationships between food and health. In this issue of Nutrition Research Update, we highlight studies addressing practical questions such as: How does daily egg intake impact chronic disease? Do eggs affect absorption of nutrients from co-consumed foods?

In our feature article, Dr. Valentine Njike summarizes new findings from a randomized controlled trial that tested the effects of egg consumption on carbohydrate metabolism and body composition in people with type 2 diabetes. Eating 2 eggs daily not only improved body weight, belly fat, and waistline, but also blood glucose levels.

A recently published meta-analysis by Alexander et al. focused on longitudinal associations between cardiovascular disease risk and egg consumption in free-living populations. This approach takes into account the overall package of nutrients that eggs contain and how they often substitute for other foods (such as foods high in simple carbohydrates). Results are directly relevant to the current emphasis on health-promoting dietary patterns.

The Egg Nutrition Center research program will be considering new research proposals early in 2017. Information on the ENC research program is available here.

As always, we appreciate any feedback or suggestions for future articles. Please contact us at ENC@eggnutritioncenter.org. 

Tia M. Rains, PhD
Executive Director 

Dr. Valentine Njike, MD MPH, Assistant Director of Research and Evaluation at the Yale Griffin Prevention Research Center. Dr. Njike is involved in methodological design, conduct, and analysis of clinical studies in chronic disease prevention.

Learn More about Dr. Njike

Adhering to a healthful diet is paramount to control blood glucose levels in type 2 diabetes (1). Weight reduction is an important goal as well when controlling blood glucose levels (2). Specifically, a 5 to 7 percent reduction in body weight can improve insulin sensitivity, decrease fasting glucose levels, and reduce the need for some diabetes medications (3-7). Foods with little or no effect on blood glucose levels are typically recommended to control blood glucose in persons with Type 2 diabetes (8). Despite the fact that eggs have little or no effect on a person’s blood glucose level, their inclusion in a healthful diet for adults with type 2 diabetes has been questioned because some epidemiological studies have shown that people who include eggs in their diets have a higher incidence of type 2 diabetes (9-10). A recent large-scale study that combined and analyzed the results of several studies has found an association between egg consumption and the incidence of type 2 diabetes in U.S.-based studies. However, this association has not been observed in studies conducted outside of the U.S. (11).

In our own recent controlled trial, we assessed the effects of daily egg consumption (in comparison to daily exclusion from the diet) for a 3-month period on blood sugar levels, body measures (i.e. body weight, belly fat and waistline), and overall diet quality among a group of 34 adults with type 2 diabetes (12). These study participants took part in two phases of the study: egg inclusion and egg exclusion. During the egg inclusion phase, they met with a registered dietitian and were asked to incorporate 2 eggs a day into their regular diets...

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