Eggs, lecithin, cholesterol - eggsactly!

If I have an egg for breakfast I feel better all day - Eggsactly!
If I have a sweet carb for breakfast I'm hungry an hour later - Eggsactly!
It's December and I can't find a free range chicken anywhere - Eggsactly!
My friends won't eat eggs, they contain cholesterol - Eggsactly!
But I eat eggs and my cholesterol is low - Eggsactly!

Here are the whys.

Start the day with an egg-only 85 calories and you get 6 grams of high quality protein and 14 essential nutrients such as lecithin, zinc, iron, choline, vitamin A, D, E and B12 and essential fatty acids (if the chicken has the proper diet - more later).

This is much healthier than a donut! For example, if you ate two eggs with toast and jam and your friend ate a bagel with cream cheese and yogurt you would be eating the same number of calories but you would be fuller longer and more satisfied with the egg meal.

Studies show that eating eggs in the morning lowers calorie consumption at lunch and at supper. Eggs supply us with lutein and zeaxanthin and betacarotene which are essential to eyes and so help protect against macular degeneration and cataracts. These nutrients are in the yolks so stop eating just the whites - bad idea!

The choline from eggs is needed by cells to function properly. This is especially important for pregnant women who need it to develop baby brain's hippocampus or memory center. If this is well developed in pregnancy the child will retain good memory in old age. Eggs provide one of the proteins to boost immunity in the elderly. (Maybe it might boost memory for them too - my theory.)

Vitamin D is know as the sunshine vitamin so it follows we should eat eggs for the Vitamin D eggs provide us with as well. Vitamin E from eggs helps inhibit acne. The B12 vitamin from an egg provides stamina.

How can anyone shun eggs in favor of donuts, which provides us nothing but empty calories and potential arterial inflammation from the donuts' trans fats?

Eggs and Cholesterol

Oh yeah - the cholesterol content of an egg - the flawed Framingham finding of the forties or thereabouts.

An egg contains 200-250 mg of cholesterol (depending on the size of the egg). So they reasoned on that study that:

• eggs contain cholesterol (true).
• Cholesterol plugs up arteries.
• Thus eggs cause heart attacks

Wrong!

Boy! Did they jump to conclusions!

Today's thinking has changed but people still avoid nutritious yummy satisfying eggs.

Only 25% of cholesterol is derived from food. 75% of it is manufactured in the liver from saturated fats - as in donuts. Eggs are low in saturated fats -- now isn't that ironic?

Even two eggs a day won't hurt most people's cholesterol levels. Shrimp have cholesterol too but have hardly any effect on cholesterol levels.

And...

The yolk has B12 which lowers homocysteine levels. Have you had your homocysteine level checked by your doctor?

Did you know that high levels of homocysteine lead to cardiovascular disease and stroke and is toxic to the brain, thereby leading to poor brain performance?

Deficiencies of vitamins and minerals have more to do with "cardiovascular accidents" than cholesterol. So have your homocysteine level checked and enjoy your eggs - Eggsactly!

One more thing.

Natural eggs were meant to make new birds. They contained the balanced minerals, vitamins, proteins and fats to accomplish that...Until man domesticated birds, the ones he could catch, I'd guess, and restrained them and fed them what he deemed the best food for the biggest and most eggs and best profit. Where have I written this before? Oh yeah. We have to take vitamins because they did the same thing to our soil.

Then man confined the birds to an 'Alcatraz' life style and added antibiotics and then extended the shelf life of their feed. Thus the eggs lost their essential fatty acids (replaced by oleic acid - Omega 9) and plant sterols. Without these plant sterols commercial eggs develop more cholesterol than homegrown barnyard eggs and have colorless yolks, are almost tasteless and are unhatchable (cannot make a bird).

The outside color of the egg is by gene and does not indicate nutritional content. Nutrition is based on what the chicken ate. Some chickens are lucky to have ground flax in their feed which gives them the essential fatty acids and thus the eggs are labeled "Omega 3 eggs" (it doesn't matter if an egg is brown or white). Truly free range eggs are hard to get so look for more color in the yolks. Free range are harder to obtain in winter because chickens rest from November to February - like the bears!

I wish I could rest, too. But I can still eat eggs - Eggsactly!

Healthy Fats | Why do foods cause stress | Trans Fats vs Healthy Fats | Butter Stresses Not Thy Body | Essential Fats Lost their Balance | What are Essential Fats? | Balancing the Omega Fats | Essential Fish Advice | Fish oil 'makes you happier' | Eggsactly! | Do all you can | Bibliography