[:en]Don’t eat too many eggs or your cholesterol will go up! Have you heard this before? What else do you know about eggs?

Inside this beautifully engineered oval shape, in the white and the yellow yolk, are nutrients such as various fats, some vitamins and minerals and lecithin in addition to the cholesterol that you probably know about.

Since the domestication of chickens more than 4,000 years ago in what is now Thailand, eggs have been an influential symbol of fertility. Today they are important ingredient in cooking as they are the glue of baking reactions such as foaming, emulsification, coagulation and the ability to brown.

Highlighting the Nutrients

Eggs!

An excellent source of vitamin K, eggs are also a very good source of B vitamins (biotin, thiamine and B12), selenium, vitamin D and protein.

One large egg provides you with 78 calories (less than a croissant at 183 cals.), 6.3g of protein, 212mg of cholesterol and 5.3g of fat (only 1.6g is saturated).

Unscrambling the research

Public health advisors have long since recommended that cholesterol levels stay at 300mg per day and that people with high cholesterol levels should avoid eggs.

More recent studies and reviews now suggest that instead of contributing to heart disease, that eggs actually lower the risk. Talk about highlighting the nutritional profile of eggs! They highlight that it is saturated fat, and not dietary cholesterol, that influences blood cholesterol levels the most. According to the authours of The Encyclopaedia of Healing Foods, what we can take from this research is that most people can eat 1 to 2 eggs a day without changes to blood cholesterol that are measurable.

Debunk the wives tales

My Egg Top 5

As with all foods and things in life, eat eggs in moderation, but know that they offer a lot of health benefits.

1. Rich in betaine, eggs help promote heart health. Betaine (along with other nutrients such as folic acid) has been found to lower homocysteine levels by converting it to an inactive form. Homocysteine comes from the breakdown of methionine and cysteine and damages the walls of our blood vessels. Homocysteine has also been implicated in osteoporosis, cancer, Alzheimer’s disease and neural tube defects.

2. Eggs are also loaded with choline, a substance that provides flexibility and integrity to structures containing fat, especially in the brain (for the geek in you google phosphatidylcholine and sphingomyelin). For this reason, it is especially important during pregnancy and breast-feeding. Choline is found in the yolk only and is also involved in breaking down homocysteine.

3. Traditional Chinese medicine recommends eggs for enhancing digestive and kidney function as well as to strengthen blood.

4. A source of nutrient loaded protein, they are easy to eat on the go (not that we recommend eating on the go – sit down and eat calmly…even if it’s on the train). Just boil several eggs on Sunday night and store them in the fridge. Peel them and pop them in a bag in the morning and eat when you get to work.

5. They contain vitamin K and D as well as the aforementioned betaine, which are good for bone health.

So enjoy them eggs-actly how you want to and know you’re taking another step towards good health.

 [:nl]Don’t eat too many eggs or your cholesterol will go up! Have you heard this before? What else do you know about eggs?

Inside this beautifully engineered oval shape, in the white and the yellow yolk, are nutrients such as various fats, some vitamins and minerals and lecithin in addition to the cholesterol that you probably know about.

Since the domestication of chickens more than 4,000 years ago in what is now Thailand, eggs have been an influential symbol of fertility. Today they are important ingredient in cooking as they are the glue of baking reactions such as foaming, emulsification, coagulation and the ability to brown.

Highlighting the Nutrients

An excellent source of vitamin K, eggs are also a very good source of B vitamins (biotin, thiamine and B12), selenium, vitamin D and protein.

One large egg provides you with 78 calories (less than a croissant at 183 cals.), 6.3g of protein, 212mg of cholesterol and 5.3g of fat (only 1.6g is saturated).

Unscrambling the research

Public health advisors have long since recommended that cholesterol levels stay at 300mg per day and that people with high cholesterol levels should avoid eggs.

More recent studies and reviews now suggest that instead of contributing to heart disease, that eggs actually lower the risk. Talk about highlighting the nutritional profile of eggs! They highlight that it is saturated fat, and not dietary cholesterol, that influences blood cholesterol levels the most. According to the authours of The Encyclopaedia of Healing Foods, what we can take from this research is that most people can eat 1 to 2 eggs a day without changes to blood cholesterol that are measurable.

My Egg Top 5

As with all foods and things in life, eat eggs in moderation, but know that they offer a lot of health benefits.

1. Rich in betaine, eggs help promote heart health. Betaine (along with other nutrients such as folic acid) has been found to lower homocysteine levels by converting it to an inactive form. Homocysteine comes from the breakdown of methionine and cysteine and damages the walls of our blood vessels. Homocysteine has also been implicated in osteoporosis, cancer, Alzheimer’s disease and neural tube defects.

2. Eggs are also loaded with choline, a substance that provides flexibility and integrity to structures containing fat, especially in the brain (for the geek in you google phosphatidylcholine and sphingomyelin). For this reason, it is especially important during pregnancy and breast-feeding. Choline is found in the yolk only and is also involved in breaking down homocysteine.

3. Traditional Chinese medicine recommends eggs for enhancing digestive and kidney function as well as to strengthen blood.

4. A source of nutrient loaded protein, they are easy to eat on the go (not that we recommend eating on the go – sit down and eat calmly…even if it’s on the train). Just boil several eggs on Sunday night and store them in the fridge. Peel them and pop them in a bag in the morning and eat when you get to work.

5. They contain vitamin K and D as well as the aforementioned betaine, which are good for bone health.

So enjoy them eggs-actly how you want to and know you’re taking another step towards good health.

 [:]