Scientists are investigating whether a diet of eggs could improve the long-term health of pregnant women and their children.
The study is focusing on women who are obese during pregnancy.
Researchers are looking to ascertain whether consuming a high protein diet can improve the health of both mother and unborn baby and whether this diet can also have a beneficial effect on the health of the son or daughter as it grows from a baby to become a child.
Details of the work were outlined at an International Egg Nutrition Consortium (IENC) scientific symposium by one of those involved in the study - Dr Nina Geiker of Copenhagen University in Denmark. The symposium was being held in Berlin as part of the September conference of the International Egg Commission (IEC). It was run by Dr Mitch Kanter, director of the Egg Nutrition Center in the United States.
Earlier studies have indicated that eggs could play an important role in the battle against obesity. One study conducted by scientists at the University of Missouri, which involved female volunteers aged between 13 and 20, found that eating a high protein diet may reduce subsequent food cravings and increase the activity of a natural hormone that is believed to help regulate food intake. Previous research in both the United States and the United Kingdom has shown that eggs could be an ideal source of food for people seeking to control their weight.
Dr Geiker told those attending the symposium in Berlin that obesity during pregnancy could have serious health implications for both the expectant mother and her unborn child. She told delegates that obesity resulted in a high risk of the child being born fat and continuing overweight through life. She said there was also an increased risk that the child would develop type two diabetes as a result of its mother
being overweight.
The study being carried out at Copenhagen University, she said, was looking at how a high protein diet could affect the “body composition” of mother and child and the risk of disease. She said that the high protein diet included two to three eggs each day, and she said she hoped the study would identify ways of limiting health problems in both pregnant women and their children.
The research comprises a very long-term study. Scientists have to identify a total of 390 women who are obese during pregnancy. Extensive measuring and testing takes place throughout pregnancy, including scans, starting at 14 weeks and continuing as the child develops in the womb. The same tests then continue on the child once it is born up to the age of nine. “It is a very long study,” Dr Geiker told the Ranger.
“We are looking at the whole foetal outcome,” she said. “We know that a high protein diet is good for satiety.” Previous studies have shown that volunteers have felt fuller for longer after eating a meal of eggs, compared with those eating a low protein diet. However, Dr Geiker said it was not just about satiety. The scientists were also keen to see the effects of eating a good diet - getting the right protein intake and an optimum level of nutrients. Dr Geiker told delegates that women should eat 52 grammes of protein each day. For men, the recommended level was higher - 68 grammes per day. She said that eggs had a very high “biological value” when it came to human health.
Recent scientific research has led to eggs being seen as a superfood. One large egg provides varying amounts of 13 essential vitamins and minerals, including nutrients that are not found abundantly in other foods, including vitamin D and choline. Lutein and zeaxanthin, which are present in egg yolk, are antioxidants that may prevent macular degeneration and consequent age-related blindness.
A study published in Food and Function found that daily consumption of egg yolks was associated with increases in plasma lutein, zeaxanthin and beta-carotene in people with metabolic syndrome. And other research conducted over recent years has provided evidence that eggs can lower the risk of heart disease, lower breast cancer risk, lower the risk of age related eye disease and lower
muscle loss.
Scientists say that an egg is an important source of choline. Studies have shown that choline is needed for optimal foetal brain development, it reduces neural tube risk and lowers inflammation markers. Eating eggs can replace what appears to be a shortage of choline in the diet.
Earlier this year an influential committee of doctors and nutritionists in the United States recommended to Government that advice to limit consumption of cholesterol should be dropped. The recommendation was made by the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee (DGAC), which is the top panel on nutrition in the United States and comprises 14 experts in the fields of nutrition, medicine and public health.
Organisations like the British Heart Foundation dropped advice to restrict the consumption of eggs long ago, but the change of mood in the United States has been welcomed by the egg industry. Mitch Kanter said he liked to think that the IENC had had a hand in securing the recommendation from the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee by highlighting the growing body of scientific evidence. He said he expected a Government decision to be announced in December.
