Photo by V. Miller
Jan. 11, 2006
Cholesterol Content and Chicken Eggs
How Do You Like Your Eggs? A Study of the Variation in Cholesterol Content of a Chicken's Egg Following Controlled Dietary Alterations
Heather Foster, 15, Beverly Hills, Fla.
Finalist, Discovery Channel Young Scientist Challenge, 2005
Project background: With worries about high cholesterol abounding, Heather hypothesized that feeding chickens a raw vegetable diet would decrease the cholesterol content of their eggs, making them more appealing to people with high cholesterol.
Tactics and results: Heather procured a Rhode Island Red hen and established a controlled environment in the laboratory. She then fed the hen four different diets: commercial feed, sliced bananas with diced peels, soy meal, and raw vegetables. She kept the chicken on each diet for five consecutive days and she analyzed the last egg laid in each period using a gas chromatograph.
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| Photo by V. Miller |
Heather found that the "soy egg"—the egg laid after the soy diet—contained the least amount of cholesterol, 31% lower than a typical egg. The egg also had less cholesterol than store-bought eggs advertised as having low cholesterol.
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