M Zahidul Haque
Every year the ‘World Egg Day’ is celebrated for creating awareness about the importance of egg and its great value in human nutrition. This year the day has been celebrated on Friday, October 9!
Eggs are the cheapest natural source of protein with many key ingredients for sustaining life. It is treated as a complete food. It contains an essential element called choline which is important for liver, heart and brain health.
Economic importance of egg is also much high. In Bangladesh, a huge number of people are engaged in the poultry industry. Eggs produced by these industries are widely consumed by our people. Eggs are within affordable price for most consumers.
Unfortunately due to the outcome of some observational studies, whether to eat egg or not is still under debate. It is said that egg yolk contains high cholesterol which is harmful for heart and some other organs.
But latest scientific research has proved that eggs don’t adversely affect blood cholesterol because dietary cholesterol does not increase cholesterol.
Rather egg increases good cholesterol and lowers bad cholesterol. In fact, eggs do not do any harm to otherwise healthy humans. And there is no reason to eat egg’s white portion only by discarding the yolk. A single boiled egg contains so many vitamins, calcium, zinc plus other trace nutrients essential for good health.
This author feels that the International Egg Commission and the World Health Organization should undertake some practical research projects to determining the true effects of eggs on human body. And it is expected that findings of such scientific research would bring an end to the egg debate confirming egg an ideal food for all.
(The author is a Professor in the Department of Agricultural Extension and Information System, Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, Dhaka. email: prof_haque@hotmail.com)
