A Harvard medical student recently completed an “egg-citing” experiment.
Nick Norwitz, 25, decided to eat 720 eggs in one month to see what the effect would be on his cholesterol.
At the end of the month, the Boston man found that his cholesterol levels had dipped by 20%.
ASK A DOCTOR: ‘HOW CAN I PREVENT HIGH CHOLESTEROL?’
Norwitz — a self-described “academician” with a PhD in metabolic health, who is currently finishing his medical degree at Harvard — said he has always had a passion for sharing his “joy and interest” in science.
Nick Norwitz, 25, decided to eat 720 eggs in one month to see what the effect would be on his cholesterol. (iStock; Nick Norwitz)
“My colleagues and I come up with creative ways to try to translate our awe and love for physiology and biology into something that is interesting and accessible to the public,” he told Fox News Digital.
“The goal is to provoke conversation and bring people to the table so we can talk about human metabolism, which I find utterly fascinating.”
VEGAN DIET VERSUS MEAT-BASED DIET: IDENTICAL TWINS FOLLOWED DIFFERENT MEAL PLANS, HERE’S WHAT HAPPENED
During his egg-eating month, Norwitz consumed 24 eggs per day.
He ate them in “all the ways,” he said — scrambled, fried, omelets, deviled.
“Eggs are a pretty versatile food, so making them in different ways made for a pretty pleasant experiment — it wasn’t that difficult.”
Norwitz, who has a PhD in metabolic health and is currently finishing his medical degree at Harvard, said he has always had a passion for sharing his “joy and interest” in science. (Nick Norwitz)
For the first two weeks, it was against the backdrop of an otherwise very low-carbohydrate diet, he said, and then he added carbs for the second two weeks.
“The goal is to provoke conversation about human metabolism.”
“The purpose of this whole experiment was a metabolic demonstration to discuss the ‘levers’ that can affect cholesterol in different individuals.”
“I expected my cholesterol levels not to change by just adding the eggs — and that is indeed what happened.”
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
It was when he added the carbs that his cholesterol levels dropped, due to a metabolic shift after having adapted to the low-carb diet — a phenomenon that he explains in more detail in the video at the top of the article.
During his egg-eating month, Norwitz consumed 24 eggs per day. He ate them in “all the ways,” he said — scrambled, fried, omelets, deviled. (iStock)
One key thing Norwitz has learned — from this experiment and others he’s done — is that there’s not one “best” human diet.
“When evaluating what is a good diet for a person, you need to consider their baseline metabolic health, and also what their goals are,” he told Fox News Digital.
CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR OUR HEALTH NEWSLETTER
Some people, for example, might be optimizing for longevity, while others might be focused on cardiovascular health or looking to keep inflammatory bowel disease in remission.
For more Health articles, visit www.foxnews.com/health
Norwitz said he has many more experiments planned to spark awareness and knowledge of how foods affect the body’s functions and overall health.
“I am passionate about making metabolic health mainstream,” he said. “This is only the tip of the iceberg.”
