Starting the day on an egg could keep your blood pressure in check, research suggests. Scientists have shown that eggs produce proteins that mimic the action of powerful blood pressure-lowering drugs.

The finding comes a few days after a study exploded the myth that they can increase the danger of heart attacks.

It now appears that eggs may be good for the heart, lowering blood pressure in the same way as Ace inhibitors, prescription-only pills taken by millions around the world. The drugs lower blood pressure by stopping the hormone angiotensin narrowing the body's blood vessels.

The researchers, from the University of Alberta in Canada, showed that when eggs come in contact with stomach enzymes they produce a protein that acts in the same way.

Fried eggs proved particularly successful at blocking angiotensin, lab-based tests showed, the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry reports. But the researchers, whose study was funded by the poultry industry, said more work was needed to show the effects outside a lab and in the human body.

Earlier this month, British researchers proclaimed that, contrary to popular perception, it is healthy to go to work on an egg. Researchers for the British Nutrition Foundation - part-funded by the poultry industry - concluded that the type of cholesterol found in eggs has minimal effect on raising heart disease risks.

It is saturated fat, rather than the cholesterol found in eggs, that is the main dietary culprit in raising cholesterol levels.

Smoking, being overweight and lack of exercise also influence blood fat and cholesterol levels and heart disease risk.

Researcher Professor Bruce Griffin, of the University of Surrey, said: 'The ingrained misconception linking egg consumption to high blood cholesterol and heart disease must be corrected. 'The amount of saturated fat in our diet exerts an effect on blood cholesterol that is several times greater than the relatively small amounts of dietary cholesterol.

The UK public do not need to be limiting the number of eggs they eat. 'They can be encouraged to include them in a healthy diet as they are one of nature's most nutritionally dense foods.' The British Heart Foundation dropped its three-egg-a-week limit in 2005. However, almost half of Britons believe the limit still applies, a poll found. ...And a slice of cheese might just prevent cancer. Eating cheese and other calcium-rich dairy products could cut your risk of cancer.

Such foods appear to be particularly effective against bowel and other cancers of the digestive system, according a U.S. study of almost half a million volunteers.

Researchers tracked the health and dietary habits of more than 490,000 adults for up to eight years.

Women taking in the most calcium, a mineral normally associated with bone health, were 23 per cent less likely to have developed bowel, stomach and other digestive cancers than those who ate the least.

For men, high levels of calcium cut the risk of these cancers by 16 per cent, the journal Archives of Internal Medicine reports.

These men and women took in more than 1,500 milligrams of calcium a day - more than twice the level recommended by the Food Standards Agency. A 100g wedge of cheddar provides about 720mg of calcium.

The researchers, from the National Cancer Institute in Maryland, said: 'Calcium has been shown to reduce abnormal growth and induce normal turnover among cells in the gastrointestinal tract.'

(Agencies via China Daily March 2, 2009)