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Eating egg yolk VS Cholesterol levels – Health Myths and Facts

How many of us are still worried about heart disease from eating eggs?

Are you worried about your cholesterol?

Perhaps you are a bodybuilder, weightlifter or gym goer trying to improve your muscle mass and/or strength and you know how important protein intake is.

Do you ditch 2-3 yolks for every 4 eggs you eat?

Sounds familiar?

I am going to unscramble the misconception about eggs, in particular, the YOLK!

You will learn how many eggs a day you may be able to eat.

Everything in this blog is the latests of the researches by the most renowned doctors and scientists with the most UP TO DATE data and findings via years of researches.

For many years “nutritional guide lines” used to discourage us from eating eggs, due to the fact it was believed it would increase the likelihood of developing heart disease because of the cholesterol-rich content.

But now, thanks to the NEW scientific researches eggs are making a comeback!

A bit about cholesterol first…

Cholesterol is very important and without it, we would be able to live, ironically, too much of it you wouldn't be able to live either.

It is essential to every cell and it plays a key role in formation of your brain and nerve cells.

For the muscles maniacs out there… testosterone wouldn't be possible if it wasn't for cholesterol as well as oestrogen and cortisol unfortunately - you know what I mean!

Without Cholesterol human life would not be possible

Dietary cholesterol and blood cholesterol are two different things!

Dietary cholesterol is present in animal food and blood cholesterol is mainly made by the LIVER and everyone is different in the amount of cholesterol produced by our bodies.

Now, does your blood cholesterol increase as results of eating high cholesterol foods – eggs?

The dogma has bee challenged!

What happens when you eat food that are high in cholesterol, such as egg yolks? Does your blood cholesterol goes up as result, as the doctors in the 70’s used to tell us?

Let's skip the talk about LDL and HDL and let's look at how much cholesterol in an egg and the recommended daily intake or RDA.

As we all know, egg whites are rich source of protein and it doesn't contain any dietary cholesterol.

On the other hand, the yolk also contain protein but large amounts of dietary cholesterol.

HOW MUCH CHOLESTEROL?

> SMALL 141mg

> MEDIUM 164mg

> LARGE 186mg

> EXTRA LARGE 208mg

> JUMBO 234mg

WHAT’S THE LIMIT?

The American Heart Association recommends not to exceed:

· If you are healthy 300mg a day

· If you have elevated blood cholesterol or heart disease 200mg a day

The UK guidelines by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE):

· Less than 300mg IF you are high risk of, or have, heart disease.

· Healthy individuals – NO stablished guidelines

Lectures by doctors and nutritionists at the University of California recommends 1 egg a day. As you seen above a small egg gives you 141mg of dietary cholesterol

DO YOLKS RAISE BLOOD CHOLESTEROL?

Over 40 years ago the AHA told us to exclude eggs from people's diets in an effort to lower blood cholesterol.

But guess what? Due to lack of scientific evidence that eating egg yolks increase your blood cholesterol or heart disease risk, they no longer mention anything on their recent guidelines.

A study published in the European Journal of Nutrition in 2008 showed that, two eggs a day in a low-calorie diet did not increase LDL or change HDL partial size after 12 weeks and they were eating 582mg of dietary cholesterol daily.

There is more…

From 2004 to 2008 two scientific researches concluded that, it is a common misconception that dietary cholesterol increase blood cholesterol in HEALTHY individuals.

However, the relationship between yolks with heart health depends not only on the cholesterol content of egg yolks, but on the composition of your total diet.

From 1966 to 2012 an observational studies in a large population also looked at egg consumption and the risk of heart disease.

As opposed to an intervention trial (lab, blood samples etc), an observational study uses statical methods to follow people's habits for MANY YEARS – such as what they eat and drink, whether they exercise, smoke, and so on.

Dr. Frank Hu, a professor of nutritional and epidemiology at Harvard compiled all observational studies on egg from 1966-2012 and found that:

One egg a day is not bad for your heart IF you are healthy, published in 2013 in the British Medical Journal.

PLEASE NOTE: Dr Hu also said, those whole have difficulty controlling their total and LDL Cholesterol may want to be cautious and instead choose food made with egg whites. The same goes to theses with diabetes.

A more recent studies published in 2015 at the America Heart Journal – recruited participants with coronary artery disease, comparing three possibles scenarios.

For six weeks each group had the following daily:

> 2 hard boiled eggs (not fried or even cooked using oil or fat)

> ½ cup of a commercial egg substitute – 99% egg whites, no cholesterol but with artificial colours

> High Carb breakfast – bagels, waffles, pancakes, or cereal

Comparing with the high carbs, 2 eggs daily didn't improve/deteriorate the participant’s cardiac risk, blood pressure, blood cholesterol and endothelial function.

Dr. Katz concluded: when patients are advised to avoid or limit foods or food categories, what do they eat instead???? While some alternatives to eggs, such as, oatmeal, might offer benefits, others are far suspect. Many breakfast choices are starchy and or sugary, and foods high in starch and sugar are potentially associated increased morbidity and mortality.

Although the studies showed that 2 eggs didn't increase cardiac risk factors, they did evidence that dietary cholesterol may cause a slight increase on blood and LDL cholesterol level in some people.

However such increase was so small that they didn't raise cardiovascular disease rink.

HOW MANY YOLKS A DAY?

One to two medium eggs a day do not seems to be detrimental or increase heart risk factors in most people.

> PLEASE NOTE: eggs used in the intervention studies were HARD BOILED!

A renowned vegetarian researcher, Dr. Jenkins, said “ ...the context in which eggs are eaten may be relevant. Eggs, bacon and rich pork sausage… maybe very different from scrambled egg on wholewheat toast.

It is also important to mention that, eggs are also source of essential amino acids, B12, vitamin D,

essential fat acids, riboflavin and folate of which are nutrients believed to lower your risk of heart disease.

If you are worried about your heart health and your LDL levels, you should be looking at a bigger picture, your entire diet/nutrition because an egg is the least of your worries. Think about your saturated fat intake compared to your mono and polyunsaturated fat, your omega 3 fatty acids, your vitamins and minerals from REAL foods and not supplements, your antioxidants levels etc… plats sterol and stanols containing products such as yogurts.

When talking about cholesterol it is also relevant to mention – FIBRE

A high fibre diet is automatically a low fat (saturated fat) diet helping your cholesterol. Soluble fibre binds to cholesterol and bile acids in the small intestine and eliminates them from the body. Bile is made from cholesterol, so more of your cholesterol is used up in replenishing the bile acid.

More on fibre HERE, from weight loss to colon cancer.

Please let me know your comments.

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