A Harvard medical student ate 720 eggs in a month, and his body changed like this...

A Harvard medical student ate 720 eggs in a month, and his body changed like this...

Can you imagine eating 720 eggs in one month?

Image source: youtube

This was an experiment conducted by Nick Norwitz, a student at Harvard Medical School. The result of this bold attempt surprised not only himself but also many experts: his cholesterol level dropped by nearly 20%.

Norwitz wanted to test a widely discussed idea: whether high dietary cholesterol intake actually leads to elevated blood cholesterol, specifically low-density lipoprotein (LDL), often referred to as "bad" cholesterol. LDL is a lipoprotein that transports cholesterol from the liver to cells throughout the body, and elevated levels of LDL may lead to cholesterol deposits in artery walls, increasing the risk of cardiovascular disease. Therefore, maintaining appropriate LDL levels is critical for heart health.

Image source: Cleveland Clinic

It has long been widely believed that consuming too many egg yolks can increase health risks. After all, egg yolks are high in cholesterol, with each yolk containing about 186 mg of cholesterol. In the 1970s and 1980s, some medical studies at the time, through animal experiments and a small number of human observations, directly linked the cholesterol in eggs to the risk of heart disease.

Many people, especially those with high cholesterol, high blood sugar and high blood pressure, often only eat egg whites and not yolks when eating eggs. However, in recent years, more and more studies have shown that this simple connection is not accurate.

Therefore, he decided to do an experiment on his own. He ate 24 eggs a day, an average of one egg every hour, a total of 720 eggs in a month, and consumed about 133,200 mg of cholesterol - more than 5 times the recommended daily intake for ordinary people.

Before this crazy experiment began, Norwitz's LDL level was about 90 milligrams per deciliter. Generally, LDL levels below 100 milligrams per deciliter are considered ideal, while levels above 160 milligrams per deciliter are considered high and may increase health risks. His guess is that such a large amount of cholesterol intake may not necessarily lead to an increase in cholesterol levels in the blood. To record his experiment, he posted the entire process on YouTube.

Novitz's LDL levels dropped by 2% in the first week of his new diet, and in the next two weeks, levels dropped dramatically by 18% due to the specific foods he ate.

In the first week of the experiment, Norwitz's LDL level dropped by 2%. As time went on, the results became even more surprising: in the next two weeks, his LDL level dropped dramatically by 18%. What is the relationship between egg yolk and blood cholesterol levels?

In recent years, several studies have proven that egg yolks are not necessarily the culprit for high cholesterol. For example, the PROSPERITY trial investigated the effects of 12 eggs versus fewer eggs on high-density lipoprotein (HDL, the "good" cholesterol) and low-density lipoprotein in the blood. The results showed that consuming 12 eggs per week did not have a significant adverse effect on blood cholesterol in patients at high risk for cardiovascular disease, and even observed a trend of increased HDL and decreased LDL in patients over 65 years of age and those with diabetes.

In addition, a systematic review of three large prospective studies in the British Medical Journal also reached a similar conclusion. The study showed that there was no significant association between moderate daily egg consumption and the risk of cardiovascular disease, and other high-fat foods in the diet (such as bacon) may be the key factor in heart health.

In fact, for healthy people, eating eggs in moderation does not significantly increase blood cholesterol levels. For people with health problems such as diabetes, eating 6 to 12 eggs per week does not negatively affect cholesterol or heart health and may increase levels of "good" cholesterol.

Image source: Mastering Diabetes

Norwitz challenged traditional ideas through his extreme experiments. He explained that cholesterol in the diet is not directly and simply reflected in blood cholesterol levels. After cholesterol enters the intestine, it binds to receptors and stimulates the release of a hormone called Cholesin. Cholesin then binds to receptors in the liver, inhibiting the synthesis of endogenous cholesterol, thereby keeping the cholesterol level in the body balanced.

Cholesin is an important hormone that regulates cholesterol metabolism. It acts like a feedback inhibition mechanism by binding to receptors in the liver, reducing the synthesis of endogenous cholesterol, thereby helping to maintain cholesterol balance in the body.

Image source: youtube

In addition, studies have shown that cholesterol metabolism in the human body is not only affected by diet, but also regulated by multiple factors such as genes, hormone levels, and intestinal flora. Cholesterol in food only accounts for a small part of blood cholesterol, especially in healthy and metabolically flexible individuals like Norwitz, where cholesterol absorption and utilization are more efficient, and therefore do not directly lead to a significant increase in blood cholesterol.

In the final two weeks of the experiment, Norwitz made some adjustments to his diet. He added fruits such as blueberries, bananas, and strawberries and increased his daily carbohydrate intake to 60 grams, which caused his LDL levels to drop dramatically.

This change shows that moderate carbohydrate intake can have a significant impact on cholesterol metabolism, especially in a high-cholesterol, high-saturated fat diet. Although it was not enough to completely take him out of ketosis, it was enough to temporarily affect his metabolism and lower his cholesterol levels.

Norwitz consumed about 75 grams of saturated fat (equivalent to 675 calories) and about 5,000 milligrams of dietary cholesterol every day. The American Heart Association recommends that saturated fat intake should be controlled within 6% of total calories. There is no doubt that Norwitz's experiment is quite extreme , but it is precisely this extreme data that makes his experimental results more interesting.

Finally, it is recommended that everyone just eat eggs normally.

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Source: Bringing Science Home (id: steamforkids)

Author: Su Chengyu

Editor: Zhong Yanping

Proofread by Xu Lailinlin