Few foods have sparked as much debate as the egg. It sits in nearly every kitchen in the world, cheap and versatile, yet it has spent decades on trial.
One generation was told to eat it every morning for strength. The next was warned that it would clog their arteries and shorten their lives.
Health advice on eggs has swung back and forth so often that it is fair to ask whether anyone knows the answer or whether we are all just repeating what we heard last, reports Daily Trust.
The story started in the 1970s and 1980s, when cholesterol became public enemy number one in Western medicine. Eggs were an easy target because a single yolk carries a fair amount of dietary cholesterol, around 186 milligrams.
Health authorities in the United States and Britain advised people to reduce their egg consumption. As a result, the consumption of eggs fell sharply.
Cardiologists then believed, reasonably given what was known, that eating cholesterol raised blood cholesterol fairly directly and raised the risk of heart disease.
What changed is that nutrition science has improved at distinguishing between dietary cholesterol and blood cholesterol, which are not as closely linked as once assumed.
For most people, the liver adjusts its own cholesterol production in response to the foods they eat. So, egg consumption affects blood cholesterol less than feared. Large studies over the past fifteen years, including work reviewed by Harvard Health, have found that consuming up to one egg a day, or around seven a week, does not increase the risk of heart disease in most healthy individuals.
The picture, however, changes for those with type 2 diabetes or existing heart conditions, where more caution is recommended.
The honest answer, the one a nutritionist gives in a clinic rather than on a talk show, is that it depends on who is eating the egg, how many, and what else is on the plate.
Now, what the science agrees on more firmly is what eggs offer. They are one of the few complete protein sources available at low cost, containing all nine essential amino acids that the body cannot make on its own.
A single egg provides about six grams of high-quality protein, in addition to vitamin B12, vitamin D, selenium, and choline, a nutrient many people lack, which is essential for brain and liver function.
For growing children, pregnant women, and older adults trying to keep their muscle mass, eggs are unmatched for the price.
Bring the conversation to Africa, and the picture becomes more layered, shaped by economics as much as cholesterol charts and by belief systems that have nothing to do with science. Across much of the continent, eggs remain one of the most affordable animal proteins a family can buy. In Nigeria, a crate of eggs is often the difference between a child getting some protein and going without. Public health workers fighting childhood malnutrition often point to eggs as a first, practical step, since they need no refrigeration for a day or two, no elaborate preparation, and can be added to almost any meal.
Yet alongside that practical value is a set of beliefs that have shaped how eggs are eaten, and by whom, for generations.
In many Nigerian communities, there is a long-held notion that children should not eat eggs too early or too often, because it will turn them into thieves. A study from South-East Nigeria found this belief widespread enough that eggs were among the most commonly avoided foods for children under two. The reasoning was that starting them young predisposes a child to stealing later in life.
Pregnant and breastfeeding women face a similar restriction. In parts of the North-East, expectant mothers have been told that eggs will make the baby fall ill often or cause jaundice in the mother herself. These beliefs vary by region, but they are common enough that health workers routinely meet a mother who quietly withholds eggs from her child, despite knowing the family cannot afford other proteins.
The truth is that dismissing these beliefs outright rarely changes behaviour. They sit in the path of useful nutrition advice at a time when stunting and micronutrient deficiency remain serious problems across Nigeria and West Africa. National survey data have put child stunting above a third and anaemia well above half in some age groups.
A health communicator’s job here is not to mock the superstition but to understand where it appears in a family’s decision-making and work around it with patience. This is often through trusted local voices such as community health workers, religious leaders, or older women who wield real authority in terms of feeding children.
So, where does that leave the question this piece started with? Egg is neither the villain of the 1980s nor a flawless superfood immune to caution. For most healthy adults and children, an egg a day is comfortably a part of a balanced diet. Those who need more care are a smaller group, mainly people managing diabetes or established heart disease. Even then, the advice is usually moderation rather than avoidance.
There is also a smaller, practical question worth settling, since it comes up almost as often as the big one. Does it matter how the egg is cooked? It does, though not because boiling is virtuous and frying is sinful. A boiled egg picks up nothing on the way to the plate, since it carries only what was in the shell. A fried egg absorbs whatever it is cooked in, and that is where the difference comes in. Fry it in a generous knob of butter or a pool of oil, and the saturated fat and calories go up. Fry it lightly in a non-stick pan with a teaspoon of a lighter oil, and the gap narrows to almost nothing, or skip the oil, and it disappears. The advice, then, is not to abandon the fried egg often present on most Nigerian breakfast tables. It is to go easy on the oil and notice how much collects at the bottom of the pan before adding more.
Perhaps the more interesting lesson is how differently the same food can be judged depending on your side of the divide.
In a cardiology clinic, the question is about cholesterol numbers on a chart. In a rural household, it might be whether a child will grow up to be a thief. Both are, in their own way, about protecting the next generation.
Getting the science right matters, but so does understanding why a mother hesitates before cracking an egg into her child’s breakfast. We ought to meet that hesitation with respect rather than dismissal while we find ways to educate her and make her change that long-held belief.
*Ojenagbon, a health communication expert and certified management trainer, writes in from Lagos.
