Eggs for your eyes?

Early results of a new study by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) indicate that eye-saving lutein may have greater bioavailability--that is, it may be absorbed more readily--from eggs than from higher-content sources such as spinach.

After volunteers ate eggs, their blood serum levels of lutein were two to three times greater than after they ate the same amount of lutein from other sources. These preliminary results provide compelling evidence that eggs can be a more bioavailable source of lutein than more conventional sources.

Spinach actually contains considerably more lutein than eggs, but the egg-based lutein is absorbed immediately. Researchers don't know why the lutein in eggs goes directly into the bloodstream, but they think it's due to other components in the yolks, such as lecithin.

The research results were issued by the USDA's Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging.

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