Eggs and Cholesterol- Who Is the Bad Guy?

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Today I am gonna give my best to explain you why eggs are not evil, why eating them is not a mild form of suicide and how they actually improve your overall health! First of all let me start with a short story. Last year I was out with a friend of mine, who used to be a kickboxer( let’s call him Peter).

We were discussing workouts and nutrition when I mentioned I eat a lot of eggs. And there it was a short moment of silence, and then Peter showed his frustration and started convincing me I should stop with the eggs. He said how I wasn’t supposed to eat more than two eggs a week! He asked if I have tested my cholesterol lately! After he saw I wasn’t bothered by his words and I kept insisting that eggs are not evil he went further! He took his phone and called his friend who I did know nothing about but turned out that he studied medicine! They had a little chat, discussing how straied I was. So Peter even gave me his phone to talk with his friend, who told me that if I don’t stop “overdosing” with the eggs I will soon be dead. Speechless! I assured them, that I will keep eating as much eggs as I feel like and we will talk again after 20 years, when I WILL BE STILL ALIVE!

Let’s look what are the advantages of the eggs. When I talk about eggs I mean the whole egg- the white and the yolk! Stop the nonsense with throwing the yolks. Keep in mind that every time you throw a yolk mother Nature cries! 😉 First, eggs are a great source of protein, as they contain 5,5 grams per medium egg and have all essential amino acids! Next eggs supply us with choline, lutein and zeaxanthin, selenium, vitamin D and a bunch of other good stuff! Because I don’t want you to feel as I am speaking in a foreign language I will explain the benefits of each nutrient mentioned above.

Choline is a chemical similar to the B-vitamins and although your body produces it, the amount is not sufficient for your needs and you need to get it from food! Choline participates in the structure of cell membranes, protecting our livers from accumulating fat, helps in brain development and
more.

Lutein and zeaxanthin defend your cells from the damaging effects of free radicals and protect the eyes from developing age-related macular degeneration and cataracts. I already discussed the benefits of vitamin D here, but I will just say that it is a steroid vitamin, a group of fat-soluble prohormones, which encourages the absorption and metabolism of calcium and phosphorous.

And last but not least, comes selenium. It reacts as an antioxidant and prevents hardening of the arteries, pancreatic benefits,keeps the skin looking good and aids pregnant women. Sounds good,doesn’t it? And that are just some of the nutrients in eggs. And guess what is my favorite part? That most of the nutrients are in the yolk!!! Still intend on throwing it?

After you read the benefits of eggs, you are probably confused why they earned the fame of being the bad guys! Most people consider that eggs are the reason for elevated cholesterol. In order to understand why that is wrong, we will first see what is cholesterol.
Cholesterol is essential to your body! As weird as it may sound- your body needs cholesterol in order to function properly! How is that possible? Well that is due to the important role that cholesterol plays in your body! Cholesterol is an essential part of your cellular makeup, fat digestion, the root of vitamin D
and it is also a building block to hormones that regulate blood sugar and blood pressure, balance minerals and the functions of progesterone and estrogen. Actually the reason behind elevated cholesterol has nothing to do with dietary cholesterol ( the one that you ingest with your food).

Dietary cholesterol has nothing to do with blood cholesterol. To understand it you should first know some things about glucose. When you eat carbs, that leads to elevated blood sugar, but because sugar can’t stay in your blood for too long, otherwise it is toxic, your body produces insulin to take the sugar away from the bloodstream. While the sugar is in your blood, it destroys the walls of your blood vessels. When that happens your body needs to compensate this in some way and here comes cholesterol. Your body uses cholesterol as a band- aid in order to temporarily cover any lesions in the arterial wall. And what is the problem with that?

Actually what happens next is that cholesterol plaque gets acted on by macrophages and is oxidized, which leads it to take more space in the artery, thus that slows down arterial flow and it could get to a point where it breaks loose and forms a clot. And because it is easier to claim somebody being guilty instead of searching deeper, cholesterol gets all the blame. And actually cholesterol was just trying to protect you! Too bad you are avoiding it because it is dangerous, and instead are stuffing yourself with sugars, which are actually the reason behind all that drama!

So it is true that eggs contain cholesterol, but the dietary one! And your body needs it! You need about 1400mg of cholesterol each day. And we are recommended to take up to 300mg? And what about the close to 1000mg you are not giving to your body? Well the liver makes sure that if you do not get enough dietary cholesterol, it will
help in the production of it! So if you do not eat enough…who cares, your body will produce it!

So let’s sum it up:

1)Eggs are awesome food– the yolk contains countless nutrients that are essential to your health

2)Eggs contain DIETARY cholesterol– it is not bad, it won’t kill you, your body needs it! If you don’t give it to your body, it will produce it by itself!

3)Eggs are a great source of protein!

4)Eggs eaten at the start of the day reduce your daily calorie intake, prevent snacking between meals and keep you full!

5)Eggs are freaking delicious and you can cook them in a bunch of different ways

6)Eggs are not that expensive, but are really good for you, so if you are looking to eat healthy you can eat them even if you do not have big budget!

7)Eat the yolk– stop throwing your health away!

P.S. If you liked this post, please take a minute and share it with your friends! I’d greatly appreciate it!