eggs and the bad eggs, and the ones in between. Let’s talk about eggs!

Hey everybody, this is Matt Lieberman filling in for DNews. I love eggs.

They’re kind of the perfect food. They’re easy to prepare, they’re delicious, and

they’re packed with protein. However, a debate has raged for years about whether or

not the yolks, which contain 186 milligrams of dietary cholesterol, are harmful to your

body. And those fears are justifiable. LDL, or low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, puts

your body at risk for heart disease and lowers fertility rates at high levels. However, HDL,

or High Density Lipoprotein cholesterol, is vital to a healthy body. Did you know that

cholesterol is an important structural element in the membrane of every last one of your

cells, and also helps create steroid hormones like testosterone and estrogen? In fact, cholesterol

is so vital to human existence that your liver produces it on a regular basis.

Actually, when you consume dietary cholesterol, you aren’t adding cholesterol to your body

by a large margin. Your liver detects the change in cholesterol intake and lowers production

accordingly to keep your body on an even keel. Now, the long-prevailing opinion of doctors

is that adults should consume under 300 milligrams of cholesterol a day, and 2-6 egg yolks a

week. However, there is abundant scientific evidence that these limits are largely unwarranted,

and that it is dietary fat, not cholesterol, that raises LDL levels. In several studies,

large groups of people are split in half. One half eats 1-3 whole eggs each day, and

the other eats an egg substitute such as egg beaters. Over a period of months, egg eaters

saw their good HDL cholesterol levels climb, while bad LDL levels remained stagnant in

70% of participants. The remaining 30% saw slight increases, but nothing drastic. Also,

those that ate pasture-raised eggs enriched with omega 3 fatty acids saw drops in triglycerides,

a major risk factor for heart disease, and all egg-eaters saw significant increases in

antioxidants such as Lutein in their blood.

Now it is important to point out that these studies were all conducted on participants

eating no more than three eggs a day, so I can’t say with any certainty what would

happen to you if you ate more than three daily. However, egg yolks are packed with vitamins

and nutrients. Vitamin A, B2, B5, B12, selenium, calcium, iron, potassium, zinc, manganese,

folate, the list goes on! They also contain choline, an important nutrient that the body

requires to produce the neurotransmitter acetylcholine. According to a 2004 US dietary survey, 90%

of Americans do not consume their recommended amount of choline. Eggs also deliver a fat

shot of protein that has an amazing amino acid profile, including 9 essential aminos

that cannot be produced by the human body and MUST be gotten from diet.

So, people, in closing, your friend who read that thing, and then that other thing, and

that other thing about how eggs were good and bad and good and bad again, tell them

to go suck an egg, or two or three. They’ll feel a lot better.

So do you feel more confident consuming whole eggs, or are you still concerned about cholesterol?

Let us know in the comments below. I’m Matt Lieberman filling in for DNews. You can find

more of my videos over at Sourcefed. Please like the video and subscribe to the channel.

Thanks for watching.