About two million men in the US are living with prostate cancer, but it’s better than dying from prostate cancer, right? Detection of the disease at an early stage gives every chance to guarantee a cure. But once the cancer begins to spread, the chances are greatly reduced. Harvard scientists studied more than a thousand men with early-stage prostate cancer and followed them for several years to see if anything in their diet was associated with cancer recurrence, such as bone metastases.
Compared to men who didn’t eat eggs, men who ate even less than one egg a day were twice as likely to develop prostate cancer. Things were even worse for those who consumed poultry meat along with the skin, their risks increased by 4 times. Researchers believe that this may be due to the high content of carcinogens (heterocyclic amines) in the muscles of chicken and turkey, compared to other types of meat.
But what about eggs? Why does eating one egg even less than once a day double the risk of cancer? Harvard researchers suggest that the choline found in eggs may increase inflammation.
Eggs are the most concentrated and abundant source of choline in the American diet, and they may increase the risk of cancer starting, spreading, and dying.
Another Harvard study, titled “The Effect of Choline on Prostate Cancer Death,” found that a high intake of choline increased the risk of death by 70%. Another recent study showed that men who had prostate cancer and consumed two and a half or more eggs per week or an egg every three days had an 81% increased risk of death.
The Cleveland Clinic research team tried to feed people hard boiled eggs instead of steak. As they suspected, these people, just like red meat eaters, experienced a spike in strokes, heart attacks, and deaths.
It’s ironic that the industry is actually boasting about the choline content of eggs. At the same time, officials are well aware of its connection with the development of cancer.