Are eggs healthy?

There is a hint of slightly higher risk among people with diabetes.

Simply an egg — a protein-rich white wrapped around a nutrient-dense yolk.

Chickens were likely domesticated in South or Southeast Asia several thousand years ago, and eggs have been a food source across nearly every subsequent civilization.

Most of an egg's vitamins, minerals, and choline are concentrated in the yolk, while the white supplies the bulk of the protein.

An affordable, complete food that was unfairly demonized for decades.

For anyone rebuilding trust in a food group after years of conflicting advice, eggs are a useful example of nutrition science correcting itself with better evidence.

Their affordability and completeness make them a practical protein source across very different budgets and cuisines.

Persian and Mediterranean kitchens cooked eggs simply — with herbs, tomato, or folded into kuku.

Kuku sabzi, a Persian herb frittata built around eggs, reflects a very old pattern of using eggs as a vehicle for whatever fresh herbs and vegetables were on hand.

Decorated eggs on the Nowruz Haft-Sin table connect eggs to renewal and fertility in Persian culture, a symbolic role that predates any modern nutritional debate about them.

Where tradition and science agree

• Both Persian and Mediterranean everyday cooking and current mainstream nutrition guidance agree eggs are a reasonable, ordinary food to eat regularly, not something to fear or ration heavily.
• Both treat eggs as a simple, complete food best prepared plainly — with herbs, vegetables, or a light cooking method — rather than needing elaborate preparation to be valuable.

• For several decades in the late 20th century, mainstream Western dietary guidance restricted eggs heavily over dietary cholesterol concerns; traditional Persian and Mediterranean cooking never adopted that restriction and continued eating eggs regularly throughout that period, and current evidence has largely sided with the traditional practice.
• Modern research has identified a specific subgroup — people with diabetes — who may see a modestly different cardiovascular response to egg intake than the general population, a nuance that broad traditional use never needed to track.

• One egg most days is generally fine.
• Prefer boiled, poached, or gently fried.

One small step today: Enjoy a simply cooked egg with herbs today.

An egg is small, complete, and honest — one of the oldest and best foods.