Eggs have gotten a bad rap for being high in cholesterol, for years doctors told their patients to suffer through dry egg white omelets and to throw away the most nutritiously dense part of the egg. For years it was thought that eating eggs on a daily basis would increase your cholesterol and therefore increase your risk of heart disease, however, this has been found to be a myth. A meta-analysis published in the journal BMJ in 2013 showed that eating 1 whole egg a day, yes, egg yolk and all, is not associated with any increased risk of coronary heart disease or stroke. In addition they found that in diabetic patients who had higher egg consumption had a 25% decreased risk of developing hemorrhagic stroke.
I do however caution patients on how to cook eggs. I recommend that patients cook their eggs without breaking the yolk. This helps to prevent the cholesterol in the yolk from becoming oxidized which is a very dangerous form of cholesterol and is responsible for damaging the arteries. Thus I recommend hard boiled, poached, easy over or sunny side up eggs. I do not on a regular basis recommend scrambled or fried eggs with the yolk broken.
Eggs are also a great source of many important nutrients for the Healthy Body. They are high in lutein and zeaxanthain which are potent anti-oxidants. They also contain lots of vitamins A,D,E and K, B6, B12 and other essential elements such as iron, zinc, copper and folate to name a few.
So next time someone tells you to cut back on the eggs, help educate them so that they stop missing out on a nutritious and delicious food.
