A mad scientist who ate 720 eggs in one month had a surprising ending.

Eggs are synonymous with nutrition. They are eaten in three meals a day, fried, steamed, and boiled. But now many people believe that because egg yolks contain a lot of cholesterol, "eating no more than 2 eggs a day" is a healthier approach.

Recently, Nick Norwitz, a daring doctor of medicine at Harvard University, used himself as a guinea pig and ate 24 eggs a day for a month, which means he ate 720 eggs in a month! Surprisingly, the cholesterol level of this "egg killer" did not go off the charts, but was reduced by 20%.

Is this scientific?

Doctor Nick Norwitz tested the egg himself. Image source: youtube

Testing the eggs with your own body: "Crazy" egg experiment

Let us first restore the process of this "crazy" experiment.

First of all, Norwitz has already obtained a Ph.D. from Oxford University and is currently pursuing a second medical degree at Harvard. He can be said to be a real academic master. He knows what he is doing, so people without relevant foundation are not recommended to try it.

The initiation of this experiment actually originated from a discovery made by Norwitz. He noticed that there was not a single real subject in the existing research that could confirm the statement that "eating more eggs will lead to increased cholesterol." In other words, this view that was almost recognized as the truth was actually just groundless talk?

The enthusiasm of medical researchers was instantly ignited! In order to verify the truth, Norwitz decided to eat the eggs himself and designed and carried out this experiment.

This trial with a sample size of 1 was divided into two phases: in the first two weeks, Norwitz maintained a low-carb diet while insisting on consuming 24 eggs a day, which means he ate an egg every hour on average; in the second two weeks, in addition to eating 24 eggs a day, Norwitz would add 60g of carbohydrates a day, such as: two bananas or blueberries/cherries dipped in macadamia cream.

What makes people laugh is that within a month, in order to make himself eat eggs, Norwitz fried, stir-fried, cooked, deep-fried, and boiled them in various ways. He even explored 180 ways to cook eggs, such as omelet, deviled eggs (a classic American appetizer), etc. It was a whole "full of eggs" that would scare the chickens away.

720 eggs contain about 133,200 mg of cholesterol. Even if Norwitz only ate eggs for a month, he would have consumed five times as much cholesterol as an average person. But he made a bold assumption: "Even if I eat like this, it won't raise the bad cholesterol in my body."

The final result was just as Norwitz expected - after a month of binge eating eggs, his low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) did not rise but fell. Specifically, in the first phase, Norwitz's cholesterol level dropped by 2%, which was only a small decrease; but in the second phase of the trial, his cholesterol level dropped by 18%, a total of 20% compared to the base before the trial.

Screenshot of Nick's video

Revealing the similar principles behind it—Does Oreo defeat statins?

Although the research was as he expected, Norwitz also admitted that we should not generalize. He said that the purpose of his experiment was to visually show the true situation of human metabolism and explore the key factors that regulate cholesterol levels in different individuals. In fact, the cholesterol level in the human body has always been in a state of dynamic balance. Simply increasing the intake of eggs will not break this balance. For most people, eating eggs in moderation will not pose a health threat.

Previous studies have confirmed that the "culprit" of elevated cholesterol levels in the human body is not cholesterol from food, but should be traced back to the liver. When people consume excessive cholesterol through food, the body will activate the "self-regulation" mechanism, that is, when cholesterol enters the intestine and attaches to intestinal cells, the intestine will secrete "enterostatin (Cholesin)", thereby regulating cholesterol metabolism. Saturated fat and trans fat in the diet stimulate the liver to produce more cholesterol, which in turn leads to increased cholesterol levels in the blood, but the saturated fat content in eggs is very small, about 1.5g. In layman's terms, from the perspective of metabolic health, eggs are just a "drop in the ocean."

Careful readers will find that the difference between the two phases of the experiment lies in "carbohydrates". Norwitz adopted a "ketogenic diet" or a low-carb diet. Under this diet, the liver will use more fat for energy, so the amount of fat that needs to be "transported" increases, and the cholesterol in the body will naturally increase. But if you add some carbohydrates to the diet at this time, this situation will be reversed - the energy supply mode will change, the carbon water energy supply will be activated, and the cholesterol level will drop sharply.

It is worth mentioning that the "genius" Norwitz also did another very interesting study - he compared the cholesterol-lowering effects of Oreos and statins, revealing similar principles behind them.

Yes, you read it right! Oreo is the well-known Oreo cookie, and statin is a traditional lipid-lowering drug.

After two weeks of strictly following the ketogenic diet, Norwitz ate 12 Oreo cookies every day (equivalent to 100g of carbohydrates per day). After 16 days of eating Oreos, his cholesterol level dropped from the initial 384mg/dL to 111mg/dL, a full 71% decrease. The effect of statins was not so gratifying. After the washout period, Norwitz began taking 20mg of statins per day according to the dosage. After about 4 weeks, his cholesterol level dropped to 284mg/dL, only 32% lower than the baseline.

Did the results once again surprise you? Interestingly, this study was actually published.

The question is - how to eat eggs?

It should be emphasized that the above experiment cannot completely prove that Oreos or eggs can reduce fat (I believe readers can make their own judgment). Individual cases do not apply to everyone. The experimenter Norwitz also did not shy away from saying that such an experiment was conducted to "attract attention" and the "contrary to common sense" conclusion naturally gained "a lot of traffic", and his purpose was to call on people to pay more attention to metabolic health.

So, the question is, how should we eat eggs?

How many eggs a day is the healthiest?

I regret to tell you that there has been a long-standing debate in the academic community about this issue. The 2013 dietary guidelines simply did not give any recommendations on dietary cholesterol due to "lack of sufficient evidence." But in the 2019 version, the recommendation reappeared, saying that "given that the cholesterol content of egg yolks is still high, it is still recommended to maintain the current intake level, and healthy adults should eat no more than one whole egg a day." The latest "Dietary Reference Intake of Nutrients for Chinese Residents (2023 Edition)", after reviewing a series of scientific evidence, maintains that there is no upper limit on dietary cholesterol for the general healthy population. After decades, the controversy still exists, and more experiments should be needed to reach a more accurate conclusion.

But for ordinary people, there is actually no need to think so much. Just eat one or two a day as usual. From time to time, if you want to eat or like to eat, you can eat one or two more, and it won’t be a big problem. In short, too much is as bad as too little is the wisdom left by our ancestors. It is the right way to stick to it and enrich your table reasonably.