Eat More Eggs If You Have These Age-Related Concerns

Getting older often comes with a few more aches, a few (or many) gray hairs, and wrinkles that show evidence of the many laughs you've enjoyed. With the wear and tear of your body comes some age-related concerns such as heart disease, osteoporosis, and cognitive decline. A healthy diet rich in fruits, vegetables, nuts, and whole grains can support your physical and cognitive health so you can prevent some of these age-related conditions.

You'll also want to include some eggs in your diet because eggs have some key nutrients that are important for healthy aging, says Elite Sports Dietician Tony Castillo, who partnered with Incredible Egg in an exclusive interview with Health Digest. Some of these nutrients can lower your risk of age-related cognitive decline and osteoporosis.

"Eggs are a good source of high-quality protein and an excellent source of vitamin B12, as well as nutrients that most Americans don't get enough of, including choline (25% daily value in a large egg) and vitamin D (6% daily value in a large egg)," Castillo said.

If you've been a fan of eggs all your life, you might have been supporting your cognitive health later in life, according to a 2018 review in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition. The choline and lutein found in eggs support your brain development early in your life, and continuing to eat eggs might ward off cognitive decline. "Choline, a nutrient critical for cell structural integrity and signaling, is also important for maintenance of health in older adults," Castillo said.

A 2024 study in Nutrients found that people who ate eggs during middle age had better cognitive function in their later years. Even men over 60 who ate more eggs performed better on memory tests 16 years later compared to men who ate fewer eggs.

"Eggs are one of the few natural food sources of vitamin D," Castillo said. "Together with calcium, vitamin D helps maintain bone health, but most Americans do not consume enough." Eggs also have specific carotenoids that can preserve your bone health. According to a 2021 study in the Journal of Mid-life Health, older adults who ate more eggs had better bone density.

Castillo said that older adults need more protein to make up for changes in protein metabolism. "Eggs give you every single essential amino acid in a digestible and bioavailable form making them one of the highest-quality protein sources out there," he said.

Eggs had a bad reputation years ago when people started paying closer attention to their cholesterol. Because eggs are high in dietary cholesterol, the belief was that it translated to high blood cholesterol. Not anymore, says the American Heart Association, which states that you should no longer fear the egg yolk. It's more about eating foods that are high in saturated fat, sodium, and sugar that leads to heart disease. Eggs are relatively low in saturated fat.

If you're concerned about dying from heart disease as you age, you don't need to worry about completely avoiding eggs. According to a 2020 study in the Journal of the American Heart Association, eating the equivalent of half an egg every day didn't affect people's risk of early death or death from heart disease. A little dietary cholesterol every day from eggs can even lower your risk of early death. But you don't want to overdo it on eggs. People who consumed more than 250 milligrams of cholesterol every day had a higher risk of early death.