Eggs and Diabetes : Are they safe for maintaining good health for a diabetic?
Eggs, being one of the most versatile food item has been a part of healthy diet of many people all around the word. It works as a great source of protein and healthy fats that is extremely important maintaining good health. But, how good eggs are for people with diabetes?
Even though they are not considered as any direct source with sugar content that can perhaps be considered as bad for diabetics. But even after that, there are many discussions around the corner with respect to eating eggs in diabetes. What are those discussions based on, is there something we need to be more cautious about before including eggs in our diet. Let's try to gather some information on these and more questions that are associated with this topic and let's find out how healthy are eggs for a diabetic.
Can you eat eggs if you have diabetes
Eggs and diabetes seems to be very compatible with each other as eggs doesn't have sugary content that can potentially lead to spike in blood sugar levels.
Egg yolks contain biotin, which is great for healthy hair, skin, and nails, as well as insulin production. Now this seems pretty good for diabetes. Not just that, eggs also work as an excellent source of potassium, which supports nerve and muscle health and thereby your cardiovascular health. They are packed with many other nutrients including lutein and choline which have been linked for improving brain health.
Hence, from an overall perspective, eggs are an excellent choice for people with diabetes. Now, in order to understand deeply how do eggs affect diabetes, we need to look at few things that are connected with eating eggs.
Glycemic index of eggs
From diabetes point of view, the first thing that we need to care about is the glycemic index of eggs. You can find out what glycemic index is in detail here. But to keep it very short and direct, glycemic index (GI) is a 100-point scale that rates foods on their ability to raise blood sugar. If a food causes rapid rise in blood sugar, it's given a higher value and the one which doesn't are given lower value.
Now, Eggs like all pure protein sources, have a GI score of 0 and therefore they do not affect blood glucose levels. That can be primarily because one large egg contains about half a gram of carbohydrates, so they might not have any impact on the blood sugar levels in the body.
Other food items such as peanut butter, many fruits also work great in providing nutritrion to the body without impacting much on the blood glucose levels. But coming back to eggs, there are still some reasons debated why eggs may not be good diabetics. Let's talk about that.
How do eggs affect diabetes
It's a very clear fact that eggs are great source of many nutrients that work great for a diabetic. But, it should be also noted that eggs are also high in cholesterol. One large egg contains nearly about 200 mg of cholesterol, but whether or not this negatively affects the body is still debatable. High levels of cholesterol in the bloodstream may raise the risk of developing cardiovascular disease.
Hence to stay on the safer side, it's important to limit your eggs intake and regularly monitor your cholesterol if you have diabetes. But, what exactly do we mean by limiting the eggs intake? Let's find out.
How many eggs can a diabetic have in a day
Now, when we talk about how many eggs a diabetic can consume safely, it should be clearly noted that there no fixed quantity or no. of eggs that can perfectly work for all people with diabetes. Anyone with high intensity exercise routine has a different calorie and fat burning capacity than a normal diabetic with sedentary lifestyle. Hence, the consumption may differ from person to person.
So like always, it's best to consult a qualified professional doctor for this and they will let you the best way and quantity according to your health and lifestyle. But, to give out a number for an average diabetic, eating 2 (two) eggs per day, 6 days a week can perhaps be a safe part of a healthy diet.
Can eggs lower blood sugar levels
From all of the above mentioned information, it can be clearly concluded that eggs can be a really healthy food item for diabetes. They are loaded with many nutrients that are great for our muscles, tissues and brain health.
Not just that, if we go as per a study that was conducted on 42 adults with overweight or obesity or type 2 diabetes, it was found that eating one large egg per day can lead to a significant 4.4% reduction in fasting blood sugar, along with improvements in insulin sensitivity.
Now if that study needs to be believed, eating eggs in diabetes can be helpful for reducing blood glucose levels and can perhaps help in many other improvements that can make your body to respond better to insulin and thereby avoiding high blood sugar levels complications.
Can eating eggs increase your risk of type 2 diabetes
As mentioned earlier, that eggs and egg yolk to be specific is high in cholesterol and it's excessive consumption may raise the risk of developing type 2 diabetes and heart disease. While the connection between the two isn’t that clear, but to stay on a safer side, even a non diabetic should limit eggs intake for avoiding any bad effect on health.
But as mentioned in the starting of this point, all of the cholesterol is in the yolk, hence eating only eat egg whites does not seem to have any impact on cholesterol levels.
So, to sum up all the information given in this article, it can be clearly concluded that eating eggs in diabetes is perfectly healthy until you consume it in limit. Along with a healthy diet, it's equally important to also take care of other factors such as medications, exercise routine so as to control sugar levels in body. Diabetics are more prone to health complications therefore, always consult a qualified professional doctor before following any new nutritional routine or exercising regime.
If you want to know about eating fried chicken in diabetes, check out the article and learn more about other foods and stuff.
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