Exercise and Nutrition Myth Busters--The Egg: Love Me or Hate Me?

Should one eat the yolk, the egg white, or the whole egg to increase overall health? The egg is a well-known super food or a food that is calorie sparse and nutrient dense, meaning that it will give you the most bang for your caloric buck. However, it still gets a bad reputation due to ties to cholesterol, a big problem in the cardiovascular disease world.

Cholesterol is a waxy, fat-like substance that is found in all cells of the body. There are three different types of cholesterol which make up your total cholesterol levels, including lipoproteins (LDL), high-density lipoproteins (HDL), and triglycerides. LDL cholesterol and triglycerides are the “bad” cholesterol associated with buildup of plaque in your arteries that can lead to heart attacks and strokes. HDL, the “good” cholesterol, is considered the dump trucks that take out the trash (LDL and triglycerides). So eggs yolks are high in fat, therefore high in cholesterol. Does that mean you should stay away from the yolks completely to avoid spikes in cholesterol?

What most people do not know is that “cholesterol in the diet doesn’t necessarily raise cholesterol in the blood. The liver actually produces large amounts of cholesterol every single day. When we eat more eggs (yolks), the liver just produces less cholesterol instead, so it evens out the total cholesterol to maintain positive levels.”1) Are you still wary about ingesting eggs? One study showed that after “obese males ingested 3 eggs per day for 12 weeks, their HDL blood concentration increased (1.23 to 1.47 mmol/L (P< 0.01)) compared to those that did not ingest eggs.”1) In 2013, “a study set out to find the relationship between dietary consumption of eggs and risk of  stroke and coronary heart disease. The study found that an increment of one egg consumed per day did not significantly increase risk of coronary heart disease or stroke (P = .88, P = .46, respectively).”2)

If you are still not convinced, what about the egg’s nutrition? 3)“Eggs are high in quality protein that have the right amounts of essential amino acids, so that the body can make the full use of the protein instead of storing it as fat or just excreting it. Eggs score high on the Satiety Index, which measures the ability of foods to induce feelings of fullness and reduce subsequent calorie intakes.” This will help you feel full, and not eat quite as many calories. 4)“Probably one the most important qualities, is the fact that eggs give us a high dosage of Choline. Choline is an important nutrient used to build cell membranes and promote brain function.” And while egg whites are full of protein and low in fat, they lack the essential nutrients found in the yolk. If you cut one or the other out, you are missing out on something great.

So don’t be scared of the precious super food that is the egg. It prevents disease, provides essential amino acids and protein, satiates hunger, promotes brain function, and actually improves cholesterol levels. Love the egg.

1)Mutungi, G., Ratliff, J., Puglisi, M., Gonzalez, M., Vaishnav, U., Leite, J., ... Volek, J. (2007).

Dietary Cholesterol from Eggs Increases Plasma HDL Cholesterol in Overweight Men Consuming a Carbohydrate-Restricted Diet. American Society for Nutrition, 138(2), 272-276. Retrieved September 28, 2014.

2)Rong, Y., Chen, L., Zhu, T., Song, Y., Yu, M., Shan, Z., ... Liu, L. (2013, January 7). Egg

consumption and risk of coronary heart disease and stroke: Dose-response meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies. Retrieved September 30, 2014, from http://www.bmj.com/content/bmj/346/bmj.e8539.full.pdf

3)Westerterp-Plantenga, M. (2007). Protein intake and energy balance. Regulatory Peptides,

149(1), 67-69.

4)Zeisel, S., & Costa, K. (2009). Choline: An essential nutrient for public health. Nutrition

Reviews, 67(11), 615-623.