Diet - Eggs or no eggs?

@jeffmarc I believe that they posted that. However, one of the studies I read said that men who ate more than ONE EGG PER WEEK had a much higher chance of getting LETHAL prostate cancer…seriously - ONE FREAKIN EGG??
Sorry, Jeff, but I just can’t see how these informational retrospective studies carry any weight.
I mean, there was no double blind study, no 10 year strict follow up; there were only questions: “Sir, do you eat eggs? How many per week?”
That right there is a big false indicator since diets can vary from week to week and memory is not very reliable.
I simply cannot believe that a man who routinely has two eggs on a Saturday morning has doomed himself to die of prostate cancer.
https://ecovatec.com/science/
This website has numerous articles debunking many myths about eggs - notably when eggs were implicated in causing prostate cancer because they were high in Omega3 fatty acids - totally FALSE because we know these fats are beneficial!
Also an article about eggs, choline and prostate cancer. Basically everything comes down to how a substance is metabolized in a ‘normal’ situation vs a ‘cancer’ environment.
I realize that this website is probably run by the egg lobby, but sometimes a lobby can be a good thing if there are widely disseminated anecdotal myths that somehow become facts, even within the scientific community. Best,
Phil

@turtbean
Unsweetened cereals like you name are mostly harmless, in moderation.
They are NOT as bad as soda.
Yogurt is not perfect either, lol, since most are sweetened.
Moderation in all things.

@heavyphil Phil, really appreciate you pushing back on this — it's exactly the kind of challenge that keeps us honest.

Your hemochromatosis analogy is an interesting one and makes a solid point: finding a metabolite elevated in disease doesn't mean consuming more of it causes the disease. Agreed. That kind of backwards reasoning is a real problem in nutrition research and you're right to call it out.

Where I'd push back is that the egg/choline evidence isn't quite built that way. The key studies were prospective — they tracked what healthy men were eating, then followed them for years to see who developed lethal prostate cancer. The men eating more eggs had higher rates of lethal disease, with a dose-response pattern (more eggs = higher risk). That's a different type of evidence from cross-sectional studies that just measure metabolite levels in people who already have cancer.

The TMAO pathway is also slightly different from the iron/hemochromatosis comparison. Hemochromatosis is a genetic defect in iron metabolism that most people don't have. But choline → TMAO conversion happens in every man with a functioning gut microbiome — it's not a rare genetic flaw, it's normal digestion. So the question isn't whether the pathway exists (it does, in all of us), it's whether the amount of TMAO generated from dietary choline meaningfully affects cancer risk.

The evidence on eggs is strong enough to take seriously but not strong enough to be absolutely definitive. That's why on evidence.zone the card includes the limitations and doesn't pretend it's settled science.

Paul

@heavyphil
What effect does it have on a man that has had his prostate removed.

@paulsweeney That sounds disgusting! Here's the full ingredient list my Balkan-style yoghurt (Astro brand, which is very common in supermarkets here in Ontario and Quebec):

Skim milk
Cream
Skim milk powder
Active bacterial cultures

@carbcounter FWIW: Costco sells a greek yogurt "Kirkland Signature Organic Greek Yogurt" that is non-fat and unsweetened. Two ingredients, non-fat milk and cultures. I've made the switch from what I used to eat.

@carbcounter American breakfast cereals in particular (but Canadian ones too) do tend to be unhealthy from a metabolic perspective, e.g. avoiding type-2 diabetes, which is a major risk on prostate-cancer treatment.

Even without added sugar, they're often processed so much that they still have a Glycemic Index (GI). I've actually heard people in the States talk about eating Cheerios as if they were virtuously consuming a health food, instead of eating something just barely better than the sugary cereals.

Shredded Wheat is OK-ish — the only ingredient whole wheat (good), but it's still heavily processed (less good), and still medium/high GI. If you're worried about blood sugar and diabetes, something like muesli or oatmeal made with whole oats (not "quick oats") will do you just fine as a breakfast cereal (low/medium GI). But be careful of portion size, because muesli is dense, so even though the GI is lower, the Glycemic Load (GL) might not be if you eat a large bowl.

Sweetened yoghurt is simply disgusting. I have no idea why people eat that. The sourness is what makes yoghurt or kefir tasty (but that's a different discussion 🤷).

@northoftheborder
Well, everyone is listing them as high glycemic index because of the processing, along with corn flakes etc, so you can do better. And OK, I haven't eaten any commercial cereal for many years, and I wouldn't touch Cheerios because I don't touch non-organic oats if I can help it because of glyphosate, and prefer organic grains for all purposes (but seldom can be that picky in restaurants).

If eaten with some berries, nuts, and low-fat milk, and after some protein (yes, even an egg or two), I wouldn't think a single serving of plain Cheerios would be so awful - but I'd want to see, there is also this "resistant starch" phenomenon and a lot of packaged products end up accidentally doing this good thing, which apparently does not show on most GI listings. The fancier sweetened Cheerios with eleven artificial colors, flavors, and preservatives, forget about them.

I see even fruit juices are listed with more moderate GI numbers and that's crazy talk, that stuff goes to your blood glucose in seconds - which is good news if you're having a hypoglycemic episode but not otherwise. Maybe I need a deep dive into what's going on with GI ratings overall.

@northoftheborder
My TJ's Greek Honey Whole Milk yogurt has milk (skim milk, cream), honey, live cultures.

Probably better for me without the cream but, well, ...

My guess is the honey content is minimal but quite sufficient for taste.