Since I’m on the subject of diabetes (see my previous two posts), I thought I’d mention a story in today’s news that’s worth pointing out if only for it’s utterly unremarkable message. Scientists at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School (both in Boston, I believe) recently took it upon themselves to see whether eating eggs might increase your risk for developing diabetes (that is, eggs from a chicken, not chocolate Easter eggs – duh). The resulting research paper, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, basically says that it doesn’t look as if eating eggs ups your risk of diabetes.Well whoop-di-doo.
But why eggs, I hear you ask? Hmm, good question. Apparently some other studies have found a link between eating seven or more eggs a week and an increased risk of diabetes (I’m talking type 2, of course). But this latest report didn’t find any significant association between the two. There again, the volunteers who took part in the latest study ate, on average, less than one egg a week, so the researchers really shouldn’t have been surprised by their findings – come on, it’s hardly comparing like with like, is it?
Which brings me to my next question – why bother? If you’re going to do an experiment to find out if the results of earlier experiments could be proved – or disproved – surely you have to replicate the same conditions? Which this particular study hasn’t. Quite spectacularly, I might add.
So the question is, to eat eggs or not to eat eggs? Well I’m just off for a couple, scrambled on toast. Hope that’s a good enough answer.