Eating an egg every day can reduce risk of heart disease and strokes, study reveals

Eggs have long been a staple of the great British breakfast - and now new research has revealed why we should eat eggs every day.

A large-scale study in China has found that eating an egg every day may reduce the risk of heart disease and strokes.

The study of half a million people, published in the journal Heart, found that those who ate an egg on a daily basis had lower rates of strokes and heart disease than those who did not consume eggs as regularly.

The 416,213 people who participated in the study were monitored for over nine years and 13.1 per cent noted they ate an egg daily while 9.1 per cent said they never or rarely ate eggs.

The 13.1 per cent who ate an egg daily were found to have a 26 per cent lower risk of having a stroke, 28 per cent lower risk of a stroke-related death and an 18 per cent lower risk of cardiovascular-related death.

It also revealed that those who ate an average of five eggs per week were 12 per cent less likely to experience coronary heart disease than those who ate two per week.

These findings don’t mean you should have an egg for every meal though, as researchers noted that it is based on ‘moderate egg consumption’ - around one egg per day.

The study authors concluded: “This present study finds that there is an association between moderate level of egg consumption (up to one egg per day) and a lower cardiac event rate.

“Our findings contribute scientific evidence to the dietary guidelines with regard to egg consumption for the healthy Chinese adult.”

While the old saying states that an apple a day keeps the doctor away - it may need to be replaced with an egg instead.