In today’s episode of “just because you can, doesn’t mean you should,” a man ate over 30 eggs a day for a week and filmed the results for the world to see.
Hoping to hit his protein goals, the young man undertook an experiment that left the internet baffled: eating 224 eggs in a week.
Experts have weighed in on why this kind of an exclusion diet might not be the best idea in the long run.
Highlights
- A man hoping to hit his protein goals undertook an extreme experiment: eating 224 eggs in a week.
- “I ate 224 eggs this week to test if eggs are ‘bad’ and I can confidently say… eat more eggs,” read the text in his video.
- Experts have weighed in on why this kind of an exclusion diet might not be the best idea in the long run.
A man hoping to hit his protein goals undertook an extreme experiment: eating 224 eggs in a week
Image credits: MrFoodies / X
In a now-viral video that has racked up millions of views online, the young man documented his entire process of consuming 224 eggs across multiple meals in seven days.
“I ate 224 eggs this week to test if eggs are ‘bad’ and I can confidently say… eat more eggs,” read the text in his video.
The video concluded with the man flaunting his physique to the camera.
Image credits: MrFoodies / X
Image credits: RoseOfSeraph
Viewers were stunned to see the man powering through his egg-heavy meals, saying, “The cholesterol is so loud rn.”
“Bro gonna be releasing some bombastic level of farts,” one said, while another wrote, “Do a blood test bro, that proves nothing.”
“His cholesterol said goodbye but his abs said hello,” one said.
“I ate 224 eggs this week to test if eggs are ‘bad’ and I can confidently say… eat more eggs,” read the text in the viral video
Image credits: MrFoodies / X
Image credits: pattybuns
While eggs are often hailed as a high-protein superfood, nutrition experts say there’s a big difference between including them in your diet and making them your entire personality. Because “people need a balanced diet,” Dr. Norman Temple, who runs nutrition courses at Athabasca University, told Bored Panda.
“For example, oranges are a healthy food, but eating them to the exclusion of all other foods is far from healthy. For starters, it will lead to nutrient deficiencies, such as a lack of sodium, vitamin B12, and unsaturated fats,” he continued.
Image credits: MrFoodies / X
Temple explained that it’s no different with eggs. While they do contain essential nutrients, they’re not a complete solution.
“A careful evaluation of the composition of eggs will reveal a low level of some nutrients,” said the expert, whose research interests include diet in relation to the diseases of lifestyle, such as heart disease.
“It will also give the body an enormous intake of protein and cholesterol,” he continued. “There is good evidence that people who eat eggs regularly (say 2 a day) do not suffer from any health problems as a result. But 30 a day is completely different.”
Experts say eggs are healthy, but not in such extreme, single-food diets
Image credits: MrFoodies / X
Another expert jokingly pointed out that the man in the viral video couldn’t compare to the fictional egg-loving icon from Beauty and the Beast, Gaston, who bragged about eating four dozen eggs every day.
“When Gaston from Beauty and the Beast was ‘a lad, he ate 4 dozen eggs every morning to help him get large.’” On the other hand, “this lightweight [man from the video] is at a measly 32 eggs per day, not even 3 dozen,” Dr. C. Michael White, the co-director of the Health Outcomes, Policy, and Evidence Synthesis (HOPES) research group, told Bored Panda.
Image credits: MrFoodies / X
White, the Head and Distinguished Professor at the Department of Pharmacy Practice, University of Connecticut, pointed out that eggs do come with some impressive benefits.
They contain all 9 essential amino acids and provide vitamin B12, vitamin D, selenium, and choline, all of which are required for a healthy body. Eggs are also low in both saturated and trans fats, which are bad for the heart.
Moreover, eggs also don’t carry the same risks as some processed protein sources.
Eating only eggs can lead to nutrient deficiencies and digestive issues
Image credits: MrFoodies / X
“Recently, an investigation into protein powders revealed that several of them, especially those using pea protein, were high in heavy metals,” White said.
“Luckily, eggs are very low in heavy metals, even when consumed in high amounts,” he continued. “So, eggs are a wonderful high-protein food to add as part of a balanced diet, and when mixed with exercise, can help to build muscle.”
Despite all the many benefits of consuming eggs, more isn’t always better in this case.
White said consuming 224 eggs in a week wouldn't help an individual maintain a balanced diet.
“An active male in his late teens or early twenties needs about 2,200 to 3,200 calories (call Kcal) per day and 90 to 140 g of protein per day,” the expert pointed out.
“This many eggs would deliver 2,300 Kcal and 192 g protein per day which is too much to achieve a balanced diet,” he added.
“If ‘egg dude’ does this exclusion diet for too long, he would be bloated and constipated,” an expert said
Image credits: MrFoodies / X
Image credits: checkinreallife
So even though eggs are great, they are just not 224-eggs-a-week level great, because they simply wouldn’t provide the fiber and other vitamins and minerals needed for healthy living.
“Fiber (especially soluble fiber) is needed to clean out the intestines, prevent colon cancer, feel full, stop constipation, and nourish the good microorganisms living in the intestinal microbiome,” White said.
Image credits: KateCox / Pixabay
“As generations of sailors learned the hard way, if you go too long without vitamin C, you will start spontaneously bleeding. Additionally, heme foods like red meat have lots of easily absorbed iron, but the iron in plants and eggs needs vitamin C to get absorbed into the body.”
Hence, if the content creator continued eating 224 eggs in a week, he would start seeing some very unpleasant effects.
The Bottom line: no single food can replace a balanced diet, not even eggs
Image credits: BuyMeACoffee / Pixabay
“If ‘egg dude’ does this exclusion diet for too long, he would be bloated and constipated, pale and lethargic, bleeding from his swollen gums, and would have nasty sulfur burps. Hm, no wonder Gaston was so cranky and that Belle was not attracted to him,” White said.
For some people, eggs immediately trigger one thought: cholesterol.
But modern research no longer portrays eggs as the cholesterol-inducing villains they were once painted to be.
Image credits: Fotorech / Pixabay
“In the 1980s and 1990s, people were concerned about dietary cholesterol, under the mistaken notion that it was a heart risk factor,” White said.
“This is because most people who were eating high cholesterol diets also had high intake of saturated and trans fats (bacon and processed meats, red meat, butter),” he continued. “However, we have now learned that foods high in cholesterol but low in saturated and trans fats (like eggs and shellfish) are not a major risk for heart disease and stroke.”
Image credits: Vanessa Loring / Pexels
The bottom line is that there is no exclusion diet out there that could provide all the many macronutrients and micronutrients people need to live a healthy, full life.
“If you do it for a few days, it is usually not a problem. When done over a longer period, serious deficiencies can arise. The idea is to eat a variety of vegetables and fruits and whole food sources of protein and fats to assure that you are getting what you need,” White concluded.
“One fart and it’s game over,” read one comment online
Image credits: amalgamatomaton
Image credits: Christian_607
Image credits: headphone123415
Image credits: Coolnftstore11
Image credits: GreyBlu3
Image credits: chadlifeman
Image credits: VexidSky
Image credits: 46_cxx
Image credits: AVG_PX
Image credits: jayiscoollllll