Eating Eggs (+raw) = HEALTHY

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#                                      https://livingthenourishedlife.com/why-i-eat-raw-egg-yolks-every-day/                                      #
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Are eggs mostly good (HDL) or bad (LDL) cholesterol?
9 Answers
Bret Scher
Bret Scher, Cardiologist/author, lifestyle medicine www.DrBretScher.com
Answered Mar 15, 2017 · Author has 195 answers and 170.2k answer views

When you eat eggs, you aren't eating LDL or HDL. You are eating dietary cholesterol, saturated fat, plus a wholee host of fat soluble vitamins (A, D, E,K), omega 3 fatty acids, choline, and numerous other helpful vitamins. It is your body that produces LDL and HDL from what you eat. In general, eggs can increase your HDL and can also minimally increase your LDL. But the more important question is do they increase your risk for heart disease and stroke? We don’t die from high cholesterol. We die from heart attacks and strokes, so in the end, that is what we need to prevent.

It turns out, for the general population, there is no solid evidence that eggs increase our cardiovascular risk. There is some debate about people with diabetes eating more than 1 egg over day, but even that data is fairly weak.

Part of the problem could be the company it keeps. Eggs with hash browns, flap jacks or processed sausage is not the same as two eggs with fresh veggies and sprinkle of grass-fed cheese.

I wrote a more detailed blog about this topic with multiple references that you can read here:Take 2 Eggs and Call Me in the Morning

Hope that helps.
(source: https://www.quora.com/Are-eggs-mostly-good-HDL-or-bad-LDL-cholesterol)

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Eggs Don't Deserve Their Bad Reputation, Studies Show (Op-Ed)



Katherine Tallmadge, M.A., R.D., is a registered dietitian, author of "Diet Simple: 195 Mental Tricks, Substitutions, Habits & Inspirations" (LifeLine Press, 2011) and a frequent national commentator on nutrition topics. This Op-Ed was adapted from an article that first appeaared in the Washington Post. Tallmadge contributed this article to LiveScience's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights.

My clients regularly ask me, "Should I be eating eggs? My doctor tells me they're 'poison,' and to avoid eggs because they'll increase my cholesterol."

My response? "That's old news!"

Most of the studies I've seen conclude that eggs are fine — and may even improve your health, as they contain nutrients difficult to find in other foods. More importantly, a report by Ying Rong of Huazhong University of Science and Technology and her colleagues published in the British Journal of Medicine in January, reviewed 17 different egg studies.

The study concluded, "Higher consumption of eggs (up to one egg per day) is not associated with increased risk of coronary heart disease or stroke. The increased risk of coronary heart disease among diabetic patients and reduced risk of hemorrhagic stroke associated with higher egg consumption in subgroup analyses warrant further studies."

The bottom line: Your nutritional needs and food choices should be personalized. You should enjoy food and eating, as it is one of the basic pleasures in life!
The much-maligned egg deserves more respect

My grandmother's favorite food in the whole wide world was eggs (see recipe below). She loved eggs so much, we named an egg cooking style after her. The "grandmommy egg" was soft-boiled for three minutes. As it sat in an egg cup, we would slice off the top third so the runny yolk would form a delicious and naturally creamy sauce for the white.

Unfortunately, during the last decades of her life, my grandmother came to see eggs as poison and avoided one of her real food pleasures. Health authorities were warning the public against eating eggs for fear that they were a major cause of high cholesterol levels — the bad kind, low-density lipoprotein, known as LDL — and increased risk of heart disease.

New studies show that the caution may have been an exaggeration.


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Yes, increased blood cholesterol levels can raise the risk of heart disease. Eggs are high in dietary cholesterol. But does eating eggs raise blood cholesterol and cause heart disease? This is where the story gets somewhat complicated, so stay with me, folks, and I'll try to make sense of all of this.
First, the research

Most epidemiological research — the kind of research that studies large populations over time and analyzes their diets and their health — has found no connection between eating eggs and increases in heart disease. On the other hand, controlled clinical studies — where researchers feed subjects specific amounts of cholesterol and measure the effect on blood — do show a slight increase in blood cholesterol with increases in dietary cholesterol, though how much depends on genetic factors.

Cholesterol is an important component of all human and animal cells and influences hormone biology, among other functions. Since your body naturally has all it needs from producing its own cholesterol, there is no dietary requirement for more cholesterol. But the American diet contains plenty, since we eat a lot of animal products. All animal products contain some cholesterol, but they also contain saturated fat, an even more significant culprit in heart-disease risk.

"The major determinant of plasma LDL level is saturated fat,"said Alice Lichtenstein, professor of nutrition science and policy at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University.

And while eggs are high in cholesterol (186 milligrams, 184 of them in the yolk), they're relatively low in saturated fat (1.6 grams in the yolk).

"In most people, for every 100 milligrams reduction in dietary cholesterol, one would predict a reduction in LDL levels of 2.2 points on average,"said Wanda Howell, professor of nutritional sciences at the University of Arizona.


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In fact, during my 20 years of counseling people with high cholesterol, just reducing their saturated fat intake to a range of 4 percent to 7 percent of their calories, causes their blood cholesterol levels to plummet — a double benefit.

Interestingly, people in Japan — consumers of some of the largest quantities of eggs in the world (averaging 328 eggs consumed per person per year — have low levels of cholesterol and heart disease compared with other developed countries, especially the United States. Why? In part, it's because the Japanese eat a diet low in saturated fat.

Americans do just the opposite. Research has shown that we usually have our eggs alongside foods high in saturated fat, such as bacon, sausage and buttered toast. This meal pattern raises LDL levels and makes the effect of eating eggs worse than it actually is.

So how many eggs can you eat? That depends on a number of factors. The American Heart Association no longer includes limits on the number of egg yolks you can eat, but it recommends that you limit your cholesterol intake to 300 milligrams daily, or 200 milligrams if you have heart disease or if your LDL is greater than 100. You decide where that cholesterol comes from!

Other experts go further and say an egg a day is fine.

"The amount that one egg a day raises cholesterol in the blood is extremely small, so small in fact that the increase in risk in heart disease related to this change in serum cholesterol could never be detected in any kind of study," said Walter Willett, professor of epidemiology and nutrition at Harvard's School of Public Health."Elevations in LDL of this small magnitude could easily be countered by other healthy aspects of eggs."

Based on the research, my recommendation is if you eat a healthful diet, go ahead and eat an egg a day. (My interview on CNN summarizes the key reasons why.) On the other hand, if your cholesterol is high and if you eat the typical American diet — high in saturated fat, devoid of fruits, vegetables and fiber — maybe you shouldn't be eating an egg a day.

But will taking eggs out of an unhealthy diet make a positive difference? Probably not. I can't tell you how many times during my career I've heard people say, "I've cut out eggs, but my cholesterol is still high!" The impact of a healthy, balanced diet cannot be denied here.
Good for you

Assuming you're eating a healthy diet, here are some ways you may benefit by eating eggs.


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Protein. Eggs are considered the gold standard that other proteins are measured against. Because of the superior amino acid mix, an egg's six grams of protein are absorbed easily and efficiently used by the body. The egg is also low-calorie (74 calories).

Choline. Yolks are one of the best sources of this essential nutrient. Choline is needed for brain development in a growing fetus and may also be important for brain function in adults.

Lutein and Zeaxanthin. These two, important, beneficial phytochemicals found in egg yolks (as well as kale and spinach) help prevent eye diseases, especially cataracts and age-related macular degeneration. While eggs contain less lutein and zeaxanthin than greens, these phytochemicals are more absorbable because of the presence of fat in the yolk.

Vitamin D. Eggs are one of the few natural sources of Vitamin D, important for the bones and teeth. Vitamin D aids the absorption of calcium, which is important for the heart and colon, as well.

To bring this all together, here is a recipe that is a regular meal for me any time of the day — quick, easy, delicious, nutritious!

Eggs Scrambled with Onion, Garlic and Sweet Cherry Tomatoes

Servings: 1
Sauté 1/4 sweet onion and a smashed garlic clove over medium-high heat in 1 teaspoon canola or olive oil until almost soft. Add a handful of chopped tomatoes to the pan (or any other vegetables you happen to have, such as chopped spinach, kale, mushrooms or peppers) and cook for another 5 minutes. Turn down the heat to very low. In a separate bowl, whisk two eggs. Pour eggs into the pan containing the onion, garlic and tomato — add 1 ounce low-fat cheese, if you wish. Stir continuously until eggs are cooked. Pour over toasted, whole rye bread.

Tallmadge's most recent Op-Ed was "Is BMI Best? 8 Steps to Your Healthiest Weight,"and her additional contributions are available on her profile page. Her latest book is Diet Simple Farm to Table Recipes: 50 New Reasons to Cook In Season. The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher. This version of the article was originally published on LiveScience.

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# Why I Eat Raw Egg Yolks Every Day                                                                                                               #
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# Have you heard the crazy news? I eat raw egg yolks every day.                                                                                   #
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# Well, maybe not every day, but on most days, I include at least 2-3 raw egg yolks in my diet. Here’s why I eat raw egg yolks almost every day…  #
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Eating raw eggs may not be what all the popular kids are doing, but since raw egg yolks are just brimming with beneficial nutrients I figure it’s worth the social stigma.
What makes egg yolks so special?

– Fat soluble vitamins are highly concentrated in egg yolks. This is where all the valuable vitamin A, D, E and K are stored. These are the vitamins that were revered in cultures studied by Weston A. Price.

– The yolk is also where you’re going to find plenty of B vitamins (like the very crucial B6 and B12, which many people are short on), plus minerals like calcium and zinc.

– Egg yolks are rich in cholesterol. And that’s a good thing! Cholesterol is imperative for hormone and neurotransmitter production (i.e. it keeps you feeling good), and is also crucial for the production of vitamin D. The latest studies like this one on eggs and cholesterol show that eggs are not a problem and everybody really jumped the gun on the whole eggs-will-kill-you thing.

– Yolks contain essential fatty acids like omega-3 DHA. Egg yolks, especially those from pastured chickens, have an excellent omega 3:6 ratio, too. There’s virtually no fat in the white, however.

– Egg yolks are also a great source of lecithin, which is great for your liver, your brain and your skin. Throw out your soy lecithin (it’s basically industrial waste) and get your lecithin from eggs!
Hearing bad things about egg yolks? New research says egg yolks are not bad!

    Time Health did a very thorough article on health research on egg yolks, nutrition, and cholesterol.
    Harvard has also revised its stance on egg yolks based on the newest research.
    Another well done piece on why egg yolks are gaining a better reputation.

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But why eat raw egg yolks?

Here’s why raw can be better than cooked when it comes to egg yolks:

– Heat alters the nutrients in eggs and destroys the enzymes that help us assimilate them. Cooked eggs are still a decent source of nutrition, but eating raw egg yolks takes the nutrient-density to a whole new level. They are highly digestible and full of readily-available nutrients.

– Raw egg yolks are super gentle on the digestive system. In fact, raw egg yolks are one of the first foods available on the GAPS diet intro, which is for people who have severe health problems originating in the gut.

– In addition, eating raw egg yolks is much less likely to trigger an allergic reaction, so even sensitive individuals may be able to tolerate them.

Now, don’t get me wrong: I eat cooked eggs too, and I don’t think cooking totally destroys an egg’s nutritional value. But going raw has a few distinct benefits and you might as well take advantage of those every now and then, right?
Do you eat raw egg yolks plain? Yuck!

Don’t worry: you don’t have to eat them plain.

Despite what some sources say, I find it hard to believe that beating an egg yolk harms the nutrients inside (wouldn’t chewing also be detrimental?).

I usually blend mine into smoothies. It actually gives smoothies that thick and creamy milkshake texture. Here’s my favorite coffee smoothie recipe, which I often eat for breakfast.

In fact, some insanely good ice cream recipes require eight (yes, eight) egg yolks!! (I’ve made this and I just whisk them into the cream mixture without cooking them if I want to keep the yolks raw.)

You can just blend some raw milk or kefir with a few egg yolks and natural sweetener like raw honey–it’s kind of like easy ice cream! Talk about satisfying a sweet tooth with something healthy. 😉

For my kids (who weirdly don’t like smoothies) I stir a yolk up with some organic peanut butter and raw honey. They don’t know the difference and they’ve asked for this snack quite a bit!
Why not eat raw egg whites?

There are differing opinions on this, but Nourishing Traditions is fairly adamant that raw egg whites aren’t something to eat every day because they contain anti-nutrients and enzyme inhibitors, and may cause digestive issues. These properties are neutralized by cooking.

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UPDATE: I’ve since disregarded my fear of raw egg whites. The practice never fully “clicked” with me, and after some research I’ve determined that for most people eating a nutrient-dense diet and with a healthy digestive system, raw egg whites are probably not a big issue. Mercola explains some more on this here. It’s a personal decision, but it’s always good to hear both sides of an issue before deciding. And as always, listen to your body and see how your digestion feels after consuming raw whites.
Ok, so I eat raw egg yolks. But is it safe?

There is a LOT of heated debate out there about whether or not it’s safe to eat raw eggs. I’ve done some research myself, and here’s my take on the whole issue:

– According to Dr. Mercola’s web site, only 1 in 30,000 eggs even has a salmonella problem. If I eat three raw eggs a day, statistics say it would take more than 27 years before I’d actually run across one with salmonella. Of course, I know life isn’t about statistics, but you get the point.

– Raw egg yolks from a quality source are even less likely to contain salmonella. Healthy, pastured chickens with lots of sun exposure aren’t going have much salmonella to pass on to their eggs.

– A healthy body is equipped to fight bacteria on its own. We encounter bad bacteria all the time. If we take good care of our bodies they can put up a good fight against the bad stuff. If you have a weak or compromised immune system, though, you might want to be more careful. (Taking probiotics helps.)

– Fresh eggs are less likely to harbor a lot of salmonella. To determine if an egg is fresh, bring it to room temperature first. Check for cracks: there should be none. Roll the egg on a flat surface: it should wobble. Check the white and yolk: both should be firm and not easily broken. If you think it’s not fresh, don’t eat it.

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