An egg a day

Having an egg for breakfast is more filling than anything else and can keep you away from obesity.

A new research conducted by researchers at The Rochester Center for Obesity Research in Michigan suggests that having an egg for breakfast is more filling than having anything else.

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The team led by Nikhil Dhurandhar wanted to find out which breakfast was more filling: a bagel, cream cheese, and yogurt (339 calories); or two eggs, toast, and jelly (340 calories).

Thirty women aged 18-60 who were not diabetic participated in the study. Their body mass index (BMI) was 25-35, putting them in the overweight to obese range. They tried the breakfasts on two test days, two weeks apart.

The researchers told them they were studying breakfast's effects on blood pressure and alertness. The women were asked periodic questions on satiety and their lunch and food journals were monitored.

The egg eaters felt fuller after breakfast and stayed full longer than the bagel group that prompted them to eat less at lunch. The egg group ate 568 calories at lunch, compared with 732 calories eaten by the bagel group.

The egg breakfast "induced greater satiety and reduced energy intake at lunch by 29 percent," the researchers said. The egg eaters ate 1,761 calories on the test day, compared with 2,035 for the bagel group.

"Till noon on the day after the egg breakfast, no compensatory increase in energy intake occurred, which remained lower by 431 (calories) during this time. Eggs have a 50% greater satiety index than breakfast cereal or bread," the researchers added.