Let’s Take a Crack at Eggs: Are They Eggcellent for You?
A Bite-Size Read for Your Health and Your Waistline
Rocky Balboa drinks five raw eggs for breakfast. My health-conscious neighbor swears by cartoned egg whites because yolks are high in cholesterol. These two sides leave us with the age-old question: Are eggs good for you?
Generally, yes, of course, with a couple caveats.
Nutritionally speaking, eggs are good for us. Eggs offer vitamin D and vitamin B among other important nutrients. They’re a complete protein, meaning they have all the amino acids required to create other amino acids the body needs. A typical egg white has 1oz of protein which makes it an easy way to measure portions; as a health coach I recommend a meal protein serving for women be 4–6oz, and for men, 6–8oz. This helps us assess our portions when we eat eggs. I would bet you’re under-eating…am I right?
But when it comes to eggs, it’s not the white that scares people, it’s the yolk! We’ve all heard a story about a person who ate eggs and their cholesterol went up and stopped eating eggs and their cholesterol went down. That is, in fact, a myth, and dangerously misleading.
Our body needs cholesterol to function. Cholesterol is the mother of all hormones and is needed for cell fluidity and communication. Egg yolks contain choline and inositol, which are essential nutrients. The former is used by the fatty layers in our brain that aids in nerve transmission and synaptic function, which is needed for our body to carry out any actions and is also critical for brain development in children. The latter, literally, manages cholesterol. So why would people stop eating what the body needs? And how does consuming eggs impact our bodies’ cholesterol needs?
This is pivotal for everyone’s understanding. Our bodies regulate cholesterol, trying to keep levels at a constant 50g (or 50,000mg) at all times. An egg yolk contains 50mg of cholesterol. That’s .1% of our bodies’ needs. On top of that, our body adjusts cholesterol production based on the amount of cholesterol consumed; our bodies produce the balance. To put it in perspective, your meal of a couple eggs, even Rocky’s five, is akin to filling a swimming pool with a garden hose!
The critical piece is also not simply ingesting cholesterol but the quality of the cholesterol consumed and what happens to it in the body.
Regarding the quality of the cholesterol we eat, when we eat a runny yolk, the fat is a liquid. When we hard boil it, the fat that was once a liquid at room temperature becomes a solid. Does this sound familiar? If you read my articles often, you’ll recall this is akin to a trans-fat in the body. Whoa! Cooking the egg at a high temperature oxidizes the fat which is the piece that causes a challenge for our health, not the cholesterol itself. When cooking your eggs, it’s best to leave the yolks runny.
Then once that egg is in our body, what happens to the cholesterol? For cholesterol to cause any harm, it has to be digested, absorbed, transported through the blood, absorbed into the cell walls, attacked by white blood cells and that’s just the beginning. This piece is very individual! Some people are good at making cholesterol, some are good at absorbing cholesterol. Cardiovascular issues are not directly connected to the cholesterol in our diet or saturated fat we consume. These issues stem from genetic factors surrounding the making, transporting and absorbing cholesterol, plus lifestyle factors — how much sugar you consume and if you eat oxidized fat. If you’re concerned about cholesterol, you might be better served by addressing these lifestyle factors than eliminating eggs.
All in, where does this leave us? As long as you aren’t allergic, have genetic or individual risk factors, then eat the egg. Do they add to heart disease? Not inherently. Should you stay away from cholesterol in egg yolks? Not necessarily. So, If you want to eat the whole egg — why the shell not?!
