Doctor Curmudgeon® The Egg and I…

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By Diane Batshaw Eisman, M.D. FAAP

That title, “The Egg and I” has always fascinated Doctor Curmudgeon®. It refers to a wonderful old movie about a newly married couple. Shortly after their marriage, the husband announces to his wife that he has purchased a chicken farm!

Really?

One can only imagine how a partner would feel if the other partner, after clearing his or her throat, made this profound revelation.

A good old fashioned faint?

Possibly, horrified, throat clenching silence?

Or a full blown high pitched roar?

The reason this book title (which was also a movie) is now added to the clutter rattling around in Doctor Curmudgeon®’s mind is the current controversy over eggs.

Way back in the golden, neurotic days of medical school, there were thoughts that eggs might not be so great due to their cholesterol content.

And then…wonder of all wonders…dietary information said: Wait! No! Eggs not bad! Eggs good! Lots of wonderful nutrients, B12, nine amino acids, choline….and a lot of us went our merry way, scrambling (in olive oil), poaching, creating veggie filled frittatas, omelets, and hard boiling.

And then…the egg cracked.

A report in JAMA consisting of about 30,000 people from Northwestern University’s School of Medicine proclaimed that one would not be safe eating even one-half an egg each day. This could increase risks of strokes and heart disease and even death!

It was as recent as 2017 when Dr. Zachary Clayton did some research and said that two eggs a day didn’t raise any risks. But he did add that there were people who seemed to be Hyper and hypo responders and if you were one of the hypers, it could increase your risks.

More stuff to add to the confusion: There was some study of 400,000 Chinese people and it seemed that an egg a day decreased risks of cardiovascular disease.
Arrrggghhh!

All those studies. But Doctor Curmudgeon® is not aware of the other things these egg eaters were doing, such as:

Do they really keep track of how many eggs they are eating and how they are prepared?

Are they obese?

What other junk are they eating?

How much physical activity?

Genetic factors?

and the ever popular: etc.
So, as it has been said quite often by others more clever than I, just grab your popcorn, sit back and enjoy the debates!

Doctor Curmudgeon® is Diane Batshaw Eisman, M.D., a physician-satirist. This column originally appeared on SERMO, the leading global social network for doctors.

SERMO www.sermo.com “talk real world medicine”

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