Intake of 2 Eggs or Oatmeal for Breakfast does not Increase Biomarkers for Heart Disease while Eggs Improve Liver Enzymes and Raise HDL Cholesterol in Young Healthy Individuals

We hypothesized that consuming 2 eggs per day for breakfast would not increase biomarkers of heart disease in a young healthy population. We recruited 26 women and 24 men aged 18-30 y old with healthy plasma lipid profiles and plasma glucose, a BMI of 23.3 ± 3.2 kg/m2 in addition to normal systolic and diastolic blood pressure. Participants were randomly allocated to consume a breakfast of either 2 eggs per day or a packet of oatmeal per day for 4 weeks. Following a 3 week washout participants were allocated to the alternate dietary treatment. Blood was collected at the end of each period to assess plasma lipid profiles, plasma glucose, liver enzymes and C-reactive protein (CRP). In spite of the additional 460 mg of dietary cholesterol per day during the egg period, we observed no changes in total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, LDL/HDL ratio, plasma triglycerides, systolic or diastolic blood pressure, body weight, plasma glucose or CRP when compared to the oatmeal breakfast. However, liver enzymes alanine ...