When I was a kid I heard that egg yolks were full of saturated fat and bad. If you have high cholesterol, you should limit egg consumption to 2-3 per week. And, though that was years ago, people still ask me about eggs and at first seem perplexed when I tell them to go ahead and eat the yolk.
Eggs were thrown under the bus years ago because the yolk contains saturated fat. There are three reasons why eggs were inappropriately demonized. First, people with high cholesterol need to watch their intake of man-made trans fats (in partially hydrogenated oils) and interesterified fats (in some fully hydrogenated oils; palm oil and palm kernel oil) more than saturated fat. And, they often need to lose weight and eat better in general. Secondly, eggs contain a whooping 1.6 grams of saturated fat per egg. Let’s put that into perspective. One glazed Krispy Kreme donut contains 6 grams of saturated fat. Opt for the cinnamon filled one and you are getting 10 grams (and zero nutrition value). The third reason eggs were inappropriately demonized is because they are packed with nutrients. Egg whites are pretty much all protein and easy to digest. The yolks? These provide a nutrition punch including – the antioxidants beta carotene, the two main antioxidants in eye tissue (which are beneficial for preventing and treating macular degeneration – lutein and zeaxanthin), some vitamin D and choline (important for brain health and functioning as well as reducing inflammation).
Eggs do contain some cholesterol but the cholesterol in food has less of an effect on your blood cholesterol than trans fats and saturated fats (and possibly less than interesterified fats as well). Plus, we need some cholesterol to make steroid hormones- such as testosterone.
So, in summary, eat the egg and, if you are worried about the fat, minor amount of saturated fat or cholesterol, cut out movie theater popcorn, doughnuts, French fries and other fat and saturated fat laden foods first. After doing this, I bet your cholesterol will drop (LDL and total). But, keep eggs in your diet!
