Eggs vs Weight loss
By Ms Shubi Husain
Consultant Dietician, Indianutrition.com
Q.
I've heard you recommend
eating whole eggs rather than egg whites or fat-free substitutes. I'm thrilled about getting
permission to eat the whole eggs, but
traditional wisdom says eggs are bad, bad, bad. Can you clarify?
A. Eggs are one of nature's
near-perfect foods. They contain an easily digestible form of protein, plus about a zillion other
valuable compounds and nutrients, and with rare exceptions (we'll get to those
in a bit) there isn't a single sound reason to avoid them, despite what you
may have heard.
The advice of conventional dietitians and traditional medical folks to avoid
eggs was based on the fact that eggs contain two substances that continue to
suffer from a terrible reputation: cholesterol and fat. The demonizing of
fat is a subject worth a column all its own, so we'll save that for another time.
Right now, let's look a little more closely at cholesterol.
As we all know "The average literate Indian doesn't know exactly
what cholesterol is but is quite certain that it's dangerous." The consensus
seems to be that whatever it is, the less cholesterol the better. In fact, cholesterol
is needed by every cell in the body. Without cholesterol, our bodies would
disintegrate. About 80 percent of the cholesterol in the body is produced by
the body itself, regardless of how much of it you eat or don't eat.
Most of your body's cholesterol is found in the cells, where it does all kinds of
good things. Only about 7 percent of the body's store of cholesterol is in the
blood, and even then it doesn't do any real damage until it oxidizes and begins
to stick to the arterial walls. Nature, however, in her infinite wisdom, created
the egg complete with its own built-in antioxidant. It's called lecithin, and it
helps prevent the cholesterol in eggs from becoming a problem. Interestingly,
lecithin is found in the yolk, which many people mistakenly discard because it
contains cholesterol.
The real take-home point however, is this: Dietary cholesterol has virtually no
effect on serum cholesterol. Even Dr. Ancel Keys, whose original "Seven Countries" study gave rise to the whole
fat/cholesterol/heart disease madness in the first place, has said: "There's no
connection whatsoever between cholesterol in food and cholesterol in the blood. None. And we've known that
all along." That has been confirmed in study after study after study. Except in
rare cases, the amount of cholesterol in the diet will affect your blood levels nary
a wit. (The only exception to this are people who are called "cholesterol
responders." Their bodies do not automatically decrease their internal production of cholesterol when dietary
intake increases, so for this small group dietary cholesterol should be monitored.)
Egg yolks do contain an essential fatty acid called arachadonic acid, which has
a mixed reputation. On the one hand, it is essential for your metabolism, and
some authorities claim that up to 20 percent of the population is deficient in
it. On the other, it is the "parent" molecule for many inflammatory substances, and some
people are particularly sensitive to it. But according to nutritional educator Robert
Crayhon, even if you're eating 10 whole eggs a day, it's probably not the presence of
arachadonic acid that's causing problems; it's much more likely to be an
imbalance between the arachadonic acid and the omega-3 fatty acids that are missing from the diets of most
Americans.
The solution? Make sure you're getting enough of those great omega-3's (found
in fish and flaxseed oil), and don't worry about the arachadonic acid in the egg
yolks.
By the way, in many supermarkets organic eggs, which contain plenty of
omega-3's, properly balanced in the correct, beneficial ratio, are now available. As Dr. Fred
Pescatore says, "If you buy nothing else for your family that is organic, please make it eggs."
To sum up: Can eggs be included as part of a healthy, fat-losing,
low-carbohydrate diet?
You betcha.
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