Eggs - The Good and The Bad

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When you add some vegetables to your eggs and have it with some whole wheat bread your breakfast is the healthiest meal of the day. Eggs have been a topic of hot controversy, though doctors and scientists believe that eggs are healthy.

For almost 40 years now, the debate is still on whether to eat or not to eat eggs, the number of eggs that can be eaten and are they as bad for the heart as smoking.

Do eggs really make you fat; do they actually add plaque to the arteries of your heart as they are high in cholesterol?

When actually analyzed, it was found that eggs don’t make you fat, but they aid in weight loss. Each egg has 70 calories and is rich in protein – this protein causes the body to release glucagon which helps the body make use of stored fats and carbohydrates.

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Eggs are cholesterol increasing villains – is this a fact or a myth? Yes eggs are high in cholesterol, actually 200mg per egg approximately. What researcher’s say is that this dietary cholesterol found in eggs is not as harmful as cholesterol from saturated fats, so cholesterol from eggs is not the cause for plaque in coronary arteries. Scientists from Harvard studied more than 100,000 people before reaching this conclusion. In fact, an egg a day improved the HDL – the good cholesterol and helped one to maintain a low carbohydrate diet.

Many people believe that the egg yolk should be discarded and only the white consumed – as egg white is said to be pure protein with no fat. The yellow yolk has fat, nutrients and protein – it has 240mg of leucine – which is an amino acid and helps in muscle building. Egg yolks also have choline which helps cell membrane functions, cholesterol which serves as the molecular framework of numerous hormones. In addition to this, egg yolks also contain vitamin A, vitamin D and vitamin E.

Eggs are found to be full of health benefits, research has now found that eating one egg a day is absolutely fine and in fact healthy and for those with heart disease can eat about four eggs a week.

To co-relate cholesterol building plaque in the arteries you would have to first study the complete diet of a person. The cholesterol build up could be due to saturated fats and a diet rich in dairy products and an unhealthy lifestyle.

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Eating raw eggs can cause food poisoning as they may contain salmonella bacteria which can cause illness, especially in babies, toddlers, elderly people and pregnant women.

Eggs should always be stored in the fridge and ideally separately from other food items, the egg tray is best. Make it a habit to wash hands thoroughly after handling and breaking eggs. Discard eggs with a cracked shell as dirt and bacteria can enter and contaminate the egg.