Eating Eggs For Breakfast Keeps Hunger At Bay

BATON ROUGE, La.Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, and people who eat eggs for breakfast are more likely to feel full during the day compared to those opt for a bowl of cereal, according to new research presented during the 19th European Congress on Obesity in Lyon, France.

Researchers at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center recruited 20 overweight or obese, but otherwise healthy individuals, to participate in the study to compare the satiating effect of eggs to a ready-to-eat cereal breakfast matched for energy density and macronutrient composition, but with differing protein quality.

Participants were tested under supervision for one week, with a two week gap period between crossover groups, who then swapped diets. A structured buffet lunch was provided on days 1 and 7 of each test week to evaluate how hungry participants were following their respective breakfasts.  Researchers found individuals given the egg breakfast felt fuller before lunch and their lunchtime food intake on days 1 and 7 was lower when compared to the cereal breakfast. Researchers also found participants had lower concentrations of the hunger-stimulating hormone acylated ghrelin and increased PYY3-36, a hormone that signals satiety secreted by the intestines, during the three-hour period after breakfast.

"This study shows that diets with higher protein quality may enhance satiety, leading to better compliance and success of a weight loss diet," said lead researcher Nikhil Dhurandhar, Ph.D., professor at Pennington Biomedical.

He added consuming normal amounts of a high-quality protein, such as that from eggs, alleviates concerns about diets high in protein consumption affecting liver and/or kidney functions.