Thursday, 17 December 2009
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Breaking the Myth: Eggs & Cholesterol
While writing exams, it is a critical time for you to eat well. When you feel stressed and tired from too little sleep, this will affect your immune system and you can easily get sick! I finished all my exams this week and now I am back home in Vancouver!
I thought I'd talk about eggs today. I already wrote a post a few months ago on foods to fight stress. Eggs were not on this list, but I have a Taiwanese friend who told me a little superstition that his mother believed in when he was in high school. I thought it was really cute. His mom would cook him one sausage and two eggs for breakfast on the morning of all his exams. It's supposed to be good luck as one sausage and two eggs put together look like "100". A perfect score!
My version of 1 sausage + 2 eggs = 100%!
Sausages/weiners are not the best choices, but eggs are a great choice for health living! Adding a bit of protein to your morning breakfast will help you feel fuller for longer.
There is a huge myth that eggs are bad for you. This is not true! If you are worried about your heart health, you should concentrate on what type of fats you are eating. Start by reading labels and reducing the amount of saturated and trans fats that you consume! These are bad fats that raise the levels of bad cholesterol in your body.
Eggs do contain cholesterol. However, your body makes its own cholesterol too. It can make adjustments depending on how much cholesterol you consume. Eggs are part of a healthy diet because they are low in saturated fats and do not contain any trans fats. Go for omega-3 enriched eggs! Omega-3 fatty acids have been shown to lower blood pressure and reduce the hardening of arteries. GREAT for your heart! These eggs contain omega-3 fatty acids because the hens were fed a diet containing flaxseeds, another omega-3 rich food.According to Canada's Food Guide, TWO eggs = 1 serving of meat and alternatives. Eggs are nutrient-dense, meaning that they have lots of nutrients for little calories (70 kcal/egg). People used to cut the egg yolks out of their diet because this is the part that contains cholesterol. But eggs yolks also contain all the nutrients! I read in a Cosmopolitan magazine a few months ago that now, egg yolks are "hot" and egg whites are so "not". Even though Cosmopolitan is not a health magazine, they put it in terms that everyone can understand!
I got most of this information from a brochure that I received through Dietitians of Canada. For more information on healthy living and cholesterol, visit www.livingwellwithcholesterol.ca.
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Comments (26)
Woo! I keep on trying to tell people that eggs are so nutritious and they get a bad rep for the whole cholesterol thing... but I totally love them. =]
Don't hens that consume grasses (free range chicken eggs) also contain amounts of omega-3 fatty acids, too?
good info to know, glad this a healthy food choice too!
Thank you for posting this! I swear by eggs. They are tasty, filling, and super good for breakfast.
now if we can just bust these awful myths on potatoes.....
I love scrambled egss! This makes me feel better about them, lol.
@bryangoodrich - I don't know! I would read the nutrition facts label and check for omega-3 fat content :)
fooood
Thank you! Eggs are one of my favorite foods =)
Any particular way to eat them? Half-boiled/Poached, Scrambled, Fried, Omelette all sit well with me. Not so much hard-boiled.
idk why so many ppl have misconceptions about eggs.. eggs ARE good for ya
i never tried the 1 sausage, 2 eggs method. aww....smucks.
The idea that cholesterol is bad for you was based on a correlation. Then saturated fat took the blame because of a correlation. It was later found that plant foods high in saturated fat such as palm oil were not causing problems. Actually, you can also make a really convincing case for frying in saturated fats if you're gonna fry food because the fat can take the heat without being damaged. It's very possible that the problem isn't with cholesterol or saturated fat, but with animal foods in general.
Animal foods would include dairy products, eggs, and meat (includes any animal you would eat even fish). These foods are all high in protein and don't normally contain fiber in them. The human body is meant for consuming moderately fiberous plant foods (whole grains, fruits, veggies, nuts, seeds, legumes) as opposed to really fiberous plant material (leaves, grass, hay). Nutritionists are always saying eat more fiber, and the best way to do that is to replace no fiber foods with something that has fiber in it.
I would say that animal foods should be kept to a minimum, and yes, that includes eggs. If you want omega 3's the best thing to do is to take fish oil capsules. That way you get the benefits of the oil without having to eat the whole fish.
Your so lucky to be done with exams and back in Vancouver, wish I was back in Van for X-mas. Anyways, I and along with many other male friends that are active in sports usually avoid the yolk and only eat the white protein sections of the egg.
So if the one sausage and two eggs formula doesnt get me a high mark for my upcoming exams, it will be your fault that I don't finish Grad school on time. :p
I try to eat at least two eggs everyday with my breakfast...which usually entails a bowl of ramen. Crack two jumbo eggs and dump them in. Equals like 30 something grams of protein in the morning...mmm.
Great post! One question, that I think someone up-thread mentioned too: are particular ways of cooking eggs better/worse for you?
I also just recently found this simple recipe for baked egg, which prompted me to go out and buy some ramekins: http://bitten.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/12/14/featured-recipe-baked-egg-with-prosciutto-and-tomato/
@benshee - @ronaldfirbank - I haven't heard of different cooking methods to be better/worse. I think it depends on what you add in. When you fry an egg, you may add butter or oil to the frying pan. This adds calories and other types of fats! I stick with vegetable oils like olive and canola oil. Adding salt is a concern for those with high blood pressure. I think omelettes are a great choice because you can add healthy vegetables to it like tomatoes or mushrooms!
Thx for the recipe link! When you try it, let me know how it goes!
Here's an interesting piece of trivia for you about an 88-year-old man who ate 25 eggs every day for at least 15 years and had normal blood cholesterol:
http://www.vivo.colostate.edu/hbooks/pathphys/digestion/liver/eateggs.html
(This is a good summary from a wonderful site about the biology of the digestive system; the original case was published in NEJM.)
This just goes to support what you said about how the human body can usually regulate how much cholesterol it absorbs/excretes. Thanks for your well-researched posts, as always.
@Senlin - ooh that's some great information! Although it is just one person. People may vary and everyone should still consult a doctor or dietitian if they have cholesterol issues. But still, very cool that that guy can eat so many eggs. That's a lot of chickens!
@Jacky_0909 - ohhhh r u from van?? where do u study now?
yeah I finished University last year in B.C. now I'm stuck in Hong Kong finishing my engeering Masters degree. I bet if you live in HK you would be eating unhealthy :p
Eggs and sausages! HUM! Delicious! ;)
@Jacky_0909 - I did live in hong kong! between 2007-2008. I was on university exchange at CUHK. and i most definitely gained weight! After I came back from hk, i was 135 lbs. probably my heaviest ever. haha I don't know how the girls in HK are so skinny where there is so much great food everywhere. I think I gained weight mostly b/c I ate out at restaurants and cafeteria all the time. My residence didn't have a kitchen. Plus the drinking at LKF. But now that I've come home, eating better, stopped drinking, I've come back to my normal weight which ranges from 120-125lbs :) Did you find any diet change or weight change once you returned to HK? I'm sure that everyone is a bit different.
@kachino - is HUM french for YUM???
Aww, Kachino, I went back to my high school yesterday and I found out that my high school French teacher has cancer =( so I didn't get to visit him. and practice french.
Wow, you don't look anything like 120-125lbs, more like 110lbs. How tall are you btw so I can compare your BMI ha ha. Well nice to know that you lived the Hong Kong life for year and with food virtually everywhere its hard to keep a healthy diet. Yeah LKF pretty much owns me once a week but I seldom go now cause of school.
Well ever since I came back to Hong Kong its been hard finding the right diet for me because of the weather and all the delicious foods out there. I was around 130lbs when I left and now I'm pretty much fluctuating from 135-140lbs. Pretty much I just stay with a big breakfast in the mornings around 10am and sandwiches for lunch.
For dinner I just limit to one bowl of rice with more veggies than meat. Exercise wise, I try to hit the gym 2-3x per week and I just do some heavy lifthing for 30-45min roughly. On the weeknds, I go bballing from 9-12 in the mornings.
What about you?
@i_Nutrition - LOL, I knew I made a mistake with the "HUM" ;). Sorry to hear about you high school teacher getting cancer. I just hope he will recover from it ... & when you say practice French ... you're talking about speaking French right? ;) Sorry, bad joke!