Problem - entity description value zero (0) gets loaded as null

I noticed a strange case when storing values in the entity's description field - if a value of zero (0) is saved, when loaded it becomes null. Now, normally, I expect to have actual descriptive strings in the description field, so this isn't too much of a problem, but still it's a valid value that the user could input and it would be good if it behaved properly.

I'm using Elgg 2.2.0

In the database:

When loaded: