Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Eggs: Friend or Foe?

I hope I see the day my roommate dies. She started it AND she’s waiting for me to die too.My roommate is also a future dietitian. We agree on most dietary issues, but we do have our disagreements. She tends to sway strictly vegan, while I tend to be slightly more liberal… open-minded… some may even say…reasonable. One of our biggest disagreements is on the consumption of eggs. She does not believe that eggs should be eaten. Ever. While I believe that eggs have a healthy place in a balanced diet.

One day I was making a delicious 1.5 egg omelet (1 whole egg and 1 egg white) with spinach, cilantro, onions, and tomatoes. My roommate walks in the kitchen, looks at me, and laughs. “What?” I ask. “I was telling my boyfriend that I’m going to live longer than you because you eat eggs.”I laugh. “Huh. Well, we’ll see about that.”“May the healthier one live longer,” she adds. “Yes, may I,” I reply.

Little does my roommate know, competition runs in my veins. I come from a lineage of bad losers and even worse winners. The first time I played Mario Kart on Nintendo 64, my brother, David, made me cry because he completely demolished me. This may appear hypersensitive, but you do not know my brother. David could make Hitler cry. When my family plays foosball our living room becomes a war zone. We also play ping pong, tennis, chess, checkers, and sometimes we straight up wrestle until the other one shamefully begs for mercy. Needless to say, when someone challenges me to the death, I’m going to win.

Eggs have acquired a bad reputation for primarily one reason: egg yolks are high in cholesterol. With heart disease being the number one killer in America, blood cholesterol levels are something that should be monitored. What people seem to be unaware of is what alters your blood cholesterol levels. Saturated and trans fat have more effect on raising your cholesterol levels than dietary cholesterol.

Eggs contain 212 mg of cholesterol, which is 71% of your ‘daily value.’ I must admit that this ‘daily value’ is misleading because cholesterol is not necessary in your diet because humans make their own cholesterol. The purpose of this daily value is more to set a limit on cholesterol consumption. People, especially those with heart disease or diabetes, should not exceed 300 mg of cholesterol a day.

The reason why you should shy away from foods high in cholesterol is because these foods are usually high in or accompanied with saturated or trans fat. Saturated fat raises your LDL cholesterol and trans fat raises your LDL cholesterol and lowers your HDL cholesterol. These fats have a significantly worse effect on your cholesterol levels than dietary cholesterol alone.
When people eat eggs it usually means they’re eating cheese, buttered toast, doughnuts, bacon, or other meats high in saturated fat, which will negatively affect your cholesterol levels as opposed to if you had eaten a vegetable omelet with whole wheat toast.

Supposedly egg consumption has never been linked to heart disease. I learned in class that eggs do raise blood cholesterol levels, but they raise HDL and LDL in correct proportions so that it does not hinder your health.

The reason I believe that eggs are a part of a healthy lifestyle is because they are a great source of high quality protein. A large egg contains 6 grams (3.5g in the white) of protein.
Eggs also contain a variety of beneficial nutrients:
RDA of Major Nutrients from Two Large Eggs





Eggs also contain thiamin, choline, calcium, potassium, magnesium, lutein, zeaxnthin, and omega-3’s (if you get the right kind of egg).

B12: The only vitamin that comes exclusively from animal products, necessary for brain function.

Iron: If you are an athletic vegetarian, you definitely need a good source of iron, this is especially true for females.

Selenium: Acts as an antioxidant in your body

Calcium: Important for bone health, which is particularly important for small framed females
Lutein and Zeaxnthin: Both are caratenoids, a type of antioxidant. They assist with vision and prevention of macular degeneration and oxidative stress.

If you choose to eat eggs, I would highly recommend eating eggs with omega-3’s. These eggs get their source of omega-3’s naturally from chickens eating flax seeds. If you choose to buy these types of eggs, I suggest that you eat the whole egg, because the omega-3 content and the majority of nutrients are in the yolk.

Omega-3 eggs are fairly new to the market and there has been little scientific research done on the effects of these eggs and heart disease. However, the research I read said that eating 1 egg a day will not increase your risk for heart disease. A small study showed the omega-3 egg consumption lowered A1c levels (which is beneficial for diabetics). Since omega-3s are generally low in the typical western diet, these eggs could benefit heart disease more than hinder. The omega-3 in these eggs are ALA and DHA (refer back to a blog post: A big FAT lie), and we all know that the only known source of DHAs for vegans is microalgae supplements. DHAs are typically found in fatty fish.


Why eggs are GOOD for ME: They are a great low-calorie unprocessed protein full of vitamins, minerals, caratenoids, and omega-3s. I am a vegetarian, female, runner, which puts me at the highest risk of iron deficiency, so getting some extra easily absorbable iron can only benefit me.
Why eggs are NOT BAD for ME: They are essentially my only source of cholesterol. I never eat trans fat, and I have a low saturated fat intake. My diet consists of vegetables, whole grains, beans, nuts, and fruit. A couple eggs a week will more likely benefit me than hurt me.

If you are baking with a recipe that requires a lot of eggs (more than 3), I would suggest using regular eggs and omitting the yolks. This will cut down on the cholesterol content as well as the caloric content. You could also use ground flax seeds OR baking powder instead of eggs.
Breakfast should be your meal with the highest protein content. Eggs are such a good breakfast because it is an easy way to incorporate vegetables AND fiber. A high protein-high fiber breakfast will keep you well satiated throughout the day.

Like everything else in this world, eggs should NOT be eaten every day. Eggs are pretty high up on my food pyramid. I don’t think ANY food should be eaten every day. Getting a VARIETY of food, while eating a plant based diet, is going to provide you with optimal health.

Hopefully you understand that I am not looking forward to my roommate’s death. I love her. As we were laughing about who was going to die first, we told each other that in the event of one of us dying, it was okay for the other to take a second and smile, knowing that the other was wrong, and in this case I, was right.

Realistically speaking, we are probably going to be centenarians sitting on our porch in Loma Linda talking about the glory days and how we single handedly kept Loma Linda a Blue Zone.
Posted by at No comments:
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)