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Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Not sure how true about eggs

Good grief, just eat the damn eggs and stop worrying.
Better still, eat the shell as well and save on calcium tablets,
who cares?

I am a certified lunatic, thanks to all the nutrition specialists,

Are Whole Eggs or Egg Whites Better for You?
by Mike Geary, Certified Nutrition Specialist, Certified
Personal Trainer

I was on a weekend trip with some friends recently and one of my
friends was cooking breakfast for the whole group. I went over
to see what he was cooking and saw he was getting ready to make
a big batch of eggs.
Well, to my shock and horror, I noticed that he was cracking the
eggs open and screening the egg whites into a bowl and throwing
out the egg yolks. I asked him why the heck he was throwing out
the egg yolks, and he replied something like this...
"because I thought the egg yolks were
terrible for you...that's where all the nasty fat and
cholesterol is".

And I replied, "you mean that's where all the nutrition is!"

This is a perfect example of how confused most people are about
nutrition. In a world full of misinformation, somehow most
people now mistakenly think that the egg yolk is the worst part
of the egg, when in fact, the YOLK IS THE HEALTHIEST PART OF THE
EGG !

By throwing out the yolk and only eating egg whites, you're
essentially throwing out the most nutrient dense, antioxidant-
rich, vitamin and mineral loaded por tion of the egg. The yolks
contain so many B-vitamins, trace minerals, vitamin A, folate,
choline, lutein, and other powerful nutrients... it's not even
worth trying to list them all.

In fact, the egg whites are almost devoid of nutrition compared
to the yolks.

Even the protein in egg whites isn't as powerful without the
yolks to balance out the amino acid profile and make the protein
more bio-available. Not to even mention that the egg yolks from
free range chickens are loaded with omega-3 fatty acids.
Yolks contain more than 90% of the calcium, iron, phosphorus,
zinc, thiamin, B6, folate, and B12, and panthothenic acid of the
egg. In addition, the yolks contain ALL of the fat soluble
vitamins A, D, E, and K in the egg, as well as ALL of the
essential fatty acids.

And now the common objection I get all the time when I say that
the yolks are the most nutritious part of the egg...
"But I heard that whole eggs will skyrocket my cholesterol
through the roof"

No, this is FALSE!
First of all, when you eat a food that contains a high amount of
dietary cholesterol such as eggs, your body down-regulates it's
internal production of cholesterol to balance things out.

On the other hand, if you don't eat enough cholesterol, your
body simply produces more since cholesterol has tons of
important functions in the body.

And here's where it gets even more interesting...
There are indications that eating whole eggs actually raises
your good HDL cholesterol to a higher degree than LDL
cholesterol, thereby improving your overall cholesterol ratio
and blood chemistry.

And 3rd... high cholesterol is NOT a disease! Heart
disease is a disease...but high cholesterol is NOT.
Cholesterol is actually a VERY important substance in your body
and has vitally im por tan t functions... it is DEAD WRONG to
try to "lower your cholesterol" just because of pharmaceutical
companies propaganda that everyone on the planet should be on
statin drugs.
You can read the following article about why trying to attack
cholesterol is a mistake, and what the REAL deadly risk factors
actually are... Cholesterol Myths

In addition, the yolks contain the antioxidant lutein as well as
other antioxidants which can help protect you from inflammation
within your body (the REAL culprit in heart disease, not dietary
cholesterol!), giving yet another reason why the yolks are
actually GOOD for you, and not detrimental.

To help bring even more proof that whole eggs are better for you
than egg whites, I recently read a University of Connecticut
study that showed that a group of men in the study that ate 3
eggs per day for 12 weeks while on a reduced carb, higher fat
diet increased their HDL good cholesterol by 20%, while their
LDL bad cholesterol stayed the same during the study.
However, the group that ate egg substitutes (egg whites) saw no
change in either and did not see the improvement in good
cholesterol (remember that higher HDL levels are associated with
lower risk of heart disease) that the whole egg eaters
did.
So I hope we've established that whole eggs are not some evil
food that will wreck your body... instead whole eggs are FAR
superior to egg whites.

Also, your normal supermarket eggs coming from mass factory
farming just don't compare nutritionally with organic free range
eggs from healthy chickens that are allowed to roam freely and
eat a more natural diet. Your typical cheap grocery store
eggs will have lower nutrient levels and a higher omega-6 level
and lower omega-3 level. On the other hand, the cage-free
organic eggs from healthier chickens allowed to eat more natural
feed and roam freely will have much higher vitamin and mineral
levels and a more balanced healthier omega-3 to omega-6 fatty
acid ratio.

I recently compared eggs I bought at the grocery store with a
batch of eggs I got at a farm stand where the chickens were free
roaming and healthy.

Most people don't realize that there's a major difference
because they've never bought real eggs from healthy chickens...
The eggs from the grocery store had pale yellow yolks and thin
weak shells. On the other hand, the healthier free range eggs
from the local farm had strong thick shells and deep orange
colored yolks indicating much higher nutrition levels and
carotenoids... and just a healthier egg in general.

So next time a health or fitness professional tells you that egg
whites are superior, you can quietly ignore their advice knowing
that you understand the REAL deal about egg yolks.

And can we all please STOP with this sillyness about eating an
omelete with 4-5 egg whites and only 1 egg yolk... If you want
real taste and real health benefits, we'd all be better off
eating ALL of our eggs with the yolks.

Another interesting thing about eggs...
I read a study recently that compared groups of people that ate
egg breakfasts vs groups of people that ate cereal or bagel
based breakfasts. The results of the study showed that the
egg eaters lost or maintained a healthier bodyweight, while the
cereal/bagel eaters gained weight.

It was hypothesized that the egg eaters actually ate less
calories during the remainder of the day because their appetite
was more satisfied compared to the cereal/bagel eaters who would
have been more prone to wild blood sugar swings and food
cravings.

Enjoy your eggs and get a leaner body!

*********************************************

6 comments:

ilene said...

Gee...thanks Anthony for the research and advice. Must tell my lo kong this! Yippeee....now I can have my eggs whole!! :)

Lena Lee said...

wow...this post is surely an eye opener....but, Ilene, too many yolks at one go is not good too...that's why i always use the ratio, maximum consumption per day is 2whites and 1yolk. Anyway, i dun fancy egg byitself.

Btw, Ilene & Anthony, why are u both blogging and fb-ing during office hour? hmmm

AnthonyLKK said...

What i have read in health magazine is that 2 full eggs is max for each day.

AnthonyLKK said...

lena: because i like to curi ayam!

and there always idiotic ppl in office to piss u off so its a way to destress!

AnthonyLKK said...

got this from a forwarded mail btw

ilene said...

Lena, I don't know the meaning of "ratio" wor! whahahahha...... Just gasak only la!

Like Anthony said, it's one way of de-stressing!