The Great Egg Debate

Finally I found an article on Livestrong.com that agrees with me that eating a whole egg, not just the egg white, is actually healthy for you...and you won't gain weight!

EDITOR'S NOTE: THE FOLLOWING POST IS BY LIVESTRONG.COM NUTRITION ADVISOR MIKE ROUSSELL, AUTHOR OF "THE 6 PILLARS OF NUTRITION." FOR MORE GREAT INFORMATION FROM DR. MIKE, VISIT HIM AT MIKEROUSSELL.COM.

Myth: Eggs make you fat

Truth: Eggs are a great food for weight loss

You may have heard that eating eggs will make you fat as 60 percent of the calories in eggs come from fat. However, eating fat doesn’t make you fat and eggs are a calorie-controlled food designed to maximize weight loss not prevent it. One egg is only 70 calories, with a great balance of 6 grams of protein and 5 grams of fat. The protein/fat combination of increases satiety hormones (the ones that tell your brain you are full). The protein in eggs also causes your body to release the hormone glucagon, which encourages your body to release and use stored carbohydrates and fat.

To prove the point, compare eggs to rice cakes—a timeless “diet” food. Two rice cakes also contain 70 calories, but with no protein or fat. Those calories come from 14 grams of high glycemic, fat-cell stuffing, refined carbohydrates, which makes it a much less desirable choice. 

Myth: You should only eat egg whites

Truth: Enjoy the entire egg (yolk included)

The ‘egg white only’ movement was birthed out of the mass movement to remove as much cholesterol and fat from the American diet as a way to fight heart disease and obesity. An egg white contains all protein (3.5 grams per egg); the rest of the nutrients, protein, and fat are hiding in the yolk, which means the yellow is the most nutritious part. Egg yolks contain 240mg of leucine, the amino acid single handedly responsible for flipping your genetic muscle building switch. But egg yolks are much more than just a muscle building nutrient. They also include choline (essential for cell membrane function), cholesterol (which serve as the molecular framework for multiple hormones in the body), vitamin A , vitamin D, and vitamin E. You can also get eggs that come from chickens who were fed omega-3 rich feed, the omega-3s in their feed enriches the omega-3 fats in the yolk, giving you as much as also contain 150mg of the long chain omega-3 fat DHA . Enjoy the entire egg to take advantage of all the nutritional benefits.

Myth: Eggs raise your cholesterol

Truth: Eggs don’t impact cholesterol levels

Reducing blood cholesterol levels has been a major public health mission for decades. It would make complete sense that if you wanted to decrease the amount of cholesterol in your blood stream then you should reduce the amount of cholesterol that you are eating. That’s why eggs have typically been touted as dangerous, as it contain approximately 200 mg per serving. 

The problem: Dietary cholesterol doesn’t actually raise cholesterol as much as you might think. In fact, only 30 percent of people experience significant increases in cholesterol levels following a diet high in cholesterol. Researchers from Harvard looked at the dietary habits of more than 100,000 people and concluded that daily egg consumption in healthy individuals didn’t increase risk of coronary heart disease. What’s more, a study from the University of Connecticut found that eating 3 eggs per day as part of a low carbohydrate improved HDL (‘good’) cholesterol without any negative health effects.