Eggs Are Healthy

Eggs are healthy because they contain good fats, proteins, phospholipids, choline, and everything else needed to form a baby chick. Food is supposed to rebuild our bodies and hence would be ideal if they contain the building blocks for our cells. Our cell membranes are composed primarily of omega-3 fats, phospholipids, cholesterol, and protein. And one egg has all that.

Eggs also contain carotenoids, such as lutein and zeaxanthin, that helps protect the eye against age-related macular degeneration.

Dr. Andrew Weil says similarly about eggs on The Doctor Oz Show where he says that eggs are among the foods that contain healthy good fats that we should be getting everyday. Eggs is also a good protein source as listed in his anti-inflammatory food pyramid. They also provide beneficial omega-3 fatty acids.

It is fine for healthy adults to eat one egg a day (including the yolk). Many experts says the same things (and some say you can even have more). Dr. Mark Hyman says in his book The UltraMind Solution, that you can have up to 8 eggs a week [page 300].

Dr. Bernstein in his book Diabetes Solutions says he eats two eggs a day. Although one should not over-do eating eggs. Because the egg yolk does contains some arachidonic acid which is a type of fat that is inflammatory. [page 272 UltraPrevention]

Nevertheless, don't skip the egg yolk and just eat the egg white. A good portion of the healthful properties are in the yolk. If you skip the yolk, you are skipping on all the good nutrients of the egg. If you don't have a cholesterol problem, then having the egg yolk should be fine.

Eggs are listed in the book The 150 Healthiest Foods on Earth which the author says ...

"Do me a favor. Stop with the egg whites already. If I see one more healthy, robust, well-muscled, athletic young person ordering an egg-white omelet for breakfast, I'll scream. Listen carefully: the egg yolk is good for you! It's part of the package." [page 193]

Egg yolks also have some vitamin K2 that plays a role in preventing the hardening of arteries by moving calcium from the arteries to the bones. Although its K2 amounts are not as high as some fermented foods such as natto.

The yolk contains a lot of B vitamins in order to support life. Best to get eggs from free-range chickens. The chickens from commercial egg farms are highly stressed and uses up all their B vitamins and there is less B vitamins in the eggs.

Uncooked egg whites contain the albumin protein with a very high protein efficiency ratio. When cooked, this efficiency ratio drops by 20 to 30 percent. But still good. This is extremely high quality protein. The single most abundant protein in our serum blood volume is albumin. [reference: page 90-91 of Forever Young]

Eggs have gotten a bad reputation in the past due to its high cholesterol. There is around 200 mg of cholesterol in one egg -- depending on the type and size of the egg.

Some people are afraid of the egg yolk because it is high in cholesterol. It is true that egg yolk have cholesterol and that consumption of dietary cholesterol may raises the LDL bad cholesterol.

However, the amount that it raises depend on the individual. A study reported by sciencenews.org found that for most people, it raises blood cholesterol by an minor amount. Only 30 to 40 percent experience a spike in blood cholesterol due to dietary cholesterol. However, the extra cholesterol was packaged into the large fluffy type of LDL, which are not a risk factor for heart disease. It is the small dense LDL that are a factor for heart disease.

Article Types of Dietary Fat and Risk of Coronary Heart Disease says there is little association between egg consumption and heart disease and concludes with ...

"These findings do not suggest that one should go back to the traditional high cholesterol Western diet. Instead, they suggest that among healthy men and women, moderate egg consumption can be part of a nutritious and balanced diet."

Dr. Uffe Ravnskov did an informal experiment on himself where he ate eight eggs a day for a few days and found that his cholesterol did not go up. [reference from his book Fat and Cholesterol are Good for You page 45]

Outside of Dr. Ravnskov's experiment, eight eggs a day is over-doing it. Dr. Mark Hyman says it is okay to eat up to 8 eggs a week including the yolk. Writing in The Blood Sugar Solution, he says eggs ...

"contain lots of DHA and they don't raise cholesterol; just the opposite. ... Yolks contain important vitamins and fats needed for brain and mood function." [page 204]

Your brain needs cholesterol to function. In fact the brain is the most cholesterol-rich organ in the body as noted in this paper and as mentioned by Nora Gedgaudas's talk "Primal mind: nutrition & mental health".

Learn more about cholesterol in my other article.

In his article, Chris Kresser believes that cholesterol is not a indicator of heart disease risk. In fact, he says in his YouTube video that he has high cholesterol, and he doesn't care. Watch video on the right to see his explanation on how to interpret cholesterol test results.

It is more important to look at amount of HDL in relation to total cholesterol -- the higher the better. It is more important to look at triglycerides -- the lower the better. It is more important to look at the type of LDL particles -- the large buoyant fluffy kind is better than the small dense kind.

The blood cholesterol is affected by many other factors such as consumption of sugar and lack of exercise. And it can not be completely blamed on consumption of dietary cholesterol.

In fact, 75% of the cholesterol in your blood is produced your your liver. And that is influenced in part by the insulin level caused by sugar consumption as mentioned in the video by Dr. Mercola on the right. For lowering cholesterol, Dr. Mercola suggests exercise and decrease consumption of sugar and carbohydrates that turns into sugar (such as bread, pasta, etc).

Certified Clinical Nutritionist Radhia Gleis cites studies in her blog that egg consumption does not correlated to increase cardiovascular disease. She explains why eggs are not bad for you in the video on the right. And she suggest that one way to look at it is that you can consume as much eggs per day as the number of bowel movements you have per day. That means that if you have one bowel movement per day (as most healthy people do), then one egg per day is fine.

In any case, all the beneficial nutrients in eggs probably offset any extra dietary cholesterol that comes from the egg.

In the EatingWell.com article Bad Foods You Should Be Eating, it listed eggs as one of the foods that you should be eating. In the article, it mentions that ...

"Medical experts now emphasize that saturated fats and trans fats are bigger culprits in raising blood cholesterol than dietary cholesterol is."

Article on whfoods.com reports of a study that found ...

"participants' blood levels of total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, HDL cholesterol, and triglycerides were not affected by eating an egg a day."

The book Ultraprevention says ...

"...eggs are very low in saturated fat, and do not increase your cholesterol. Organic omega-3 eggs are particularly high in healthful fats, and are an excellent source of protein and folic acid." [page 16]

Since eggs are cells, eggs have all the ingredients to keep cell membranes healthy. The have omega-3 fatty acids, phospholipids, cholesterol, and protein.

Eggs is a good source of choline that is the precursor to phosphatidylcholine. Phosphatidylcholine along with phosphatidylserine are among the elements that make up the phospholipids of cell membranes.

Choline (along with B vitamins) plays a role in making the important neurotransmitter acetylcholine. Acetylcholine plays a major role in memory, motor functions, and other autonomic activities of the nervous system.

Dr. Daniel Amen writes in his book Change Your Brain, Change Your Body that a deficiency in acetylcholine may lead to Alzheimer's disease and dementia. [page 326 of Change Your Brain, Change Your Body]

Choline in conjunction with betaine reduces inflammation and decreases homocysteine. A study found that people whose diet are high in choline and betaine have lower inflammation markers such as lower C-reactive protein and lower tumor necrosis factor alpha.^[2]

Chronic inflammation have been link to chronic diseases such as heart disease, Alzheimer's, osteoporosis, and type 2 diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis.

Choline is necessary for pregnant women for brain and memory development of the fetus.

With choline being such an important nutrient, it is surprising that some cite that 90% of Americans may be deficient in choline.^[2] Chris Masterjohn believes that choline deficiency is ultimately responsible for fatty liver disease of which 100 million Americans have some degree of fatty liver disease.^[3]

It is best to eat eggs from pastured chickens that roam freely about. They are known as free-range or cage free chickens. The diets of these chicken most closestly resemble their diet in wild of plants, grubs, worms, and insects. Their eggs will have higher amounts of omega-3 fats.

The book Nourishing Traditions writes that ...

"Eggs from pasture-fed chickens ... constitute the most complete, nutritious and economical form of animal protein available..." [page 32]

Omega-3 enriched eggs are good to get as well. There are now eggs labeled as omega-3 eggs. No, they do not inject the eggs with omega-3. These eggs are produced by feeding the chickens food source of omega-3.

Here is what the book UltraPrevention has to say about omega-3 eggs. ..

"Organic omega-3 eggs are particulary high in healthful fats, and are an excellent source of protein and folic acid." [page 16]

Getting organic eggs is preferred. Organic eggs and free-range eggs have lower risk of salmonella. [reference]

Then there are eggs from vegetarian chickens. These chickens probably do not see the sun or the outdoors, otherwise they would consume at least some worms and insects. Best to get free-range eggs.

When cooking, it is best to minimize the exposure of the eggs yolk to oxygen so that less of the cholesterol gets oxidized. So poaching or boiling with soft yolk is good. Frying over-easy is okay too. And at least, it is better than scrambled eggs. But having scrambled eggs is still better than not having eggs at all.

When frying, do not use olive oil. The heat needed to fry eggs will damage the olive oil. And definately do not use vegetable oil. Instead, use coconut oil which is more heat resistant. Coconut oil is among the best cooking oil to use.

Eggs are healthy provided that you do not have a food allergy to them. Some people and children have a food allergy to eggs in which they notice symptoms shortly after eatting eggs. That is why some food packaging indicates whether they contain egg products. If you are allergic to eggs, then do not eat eggs or egg products. Some people can outgrow this food allergy, but others have it for life.

Even if you do not have an allergy to eggs, there should be a limit of the number of eggs you eat per day. More is not necessarily better. The reason is that one medium-size egg contains 500 mg of omega-6 and only 32 mg of omega-3 [reference], which is not a favorable ratio if you are trying to reduce the inflammatory omega-6 intake.