Eggs are one of the healthiest foods you can eat, and it’s a shame they’ve been vilified for so long in the United States. As a result, egg consumption has been going down for the last 40 years, all because of concerns about cholesterol. But the idea that eggs are unhealthy is a complete myth, one that’s easily debunked if you look at the evidence.
In this latest study, researchers identified several different peptides in eggs that act as potent ACE inhibitors, which are drugs used to lower high blood pressure. This means they may actually lower your risk of heart disease, not raise it as health officials like to say they do. One particularly skewed belief is that eggs are bad for your heart; however, eating eggs on a daily basis may prove to hold numerous health benefits, especially
a decreased risk of heart disease.
Cholesterol is in every cell in your body, where it helps to produce cell membranes, hormones, vitamin D and bile acids that help you to digest fat. Cholesterol also helps in the formation of memories and is vital for your neurological function. We would not be here without it. No wonder lowering cholesterol too much increases one’s risk of dying. Cholesterol also is a precursor to all of the steroid hormones. You cannot make estrogen,
testosterone, cortisone, and a host of other vital hormones without cholesterol.
And anyway, numerous studies have supported the finding that eggs have virtually nothing to do with raising your cholesterol. For instance, research published in the International Journal of Cardiology showed that, in healthy adults, eating eggs every day did not produce:
• A negative effect on endothelial function, an aggregate measure of cardiac risk
• An increase in cholesterol levels
This misguided lipid hypothesis — developed in the 1950s by nutrition pioneer Ancel Keys — linked dietary fat to coronary heart disease. The nutrition community of that time completely accepted the hypothesis, and encouraged the public to cut out butter, red meat, animal fats, eggs, dairy and other “artery clogging” fats from their diets — a radical change at that time
What you may not know is that when Keys published his analysis that claimed to prove the link between dietary fats and coronary heart disease, he selectively analyzed
information from only six countries to prove his correlation, rather than comparing all the data available at the time — from 22 countries. As a result of this “cherry-picked” data, government health organizations began bombarding the public with advice that has contributed to many of the disease epidemics going on today: eat a low-fat diet.
Not surprisingly, numerous studies have actually shown that Keys’ theory was wrong and foods like eggs are healthy. Sadly, as Americans cut out nutritious animal foods like eggs from their diets, they were left hungry. So they began eating more processed grains, more vegetable oils, and more high-fructose corn syrup, all of which are nutritional disasters. It is this latter type of diet that will actually lead to increased inflammation, and therefore cholesterol, in your body. So don’t let anyone scare you away from eggs (and other animal foods) anymore.
But Wait, The Type of Egg DOES Matter!
Eggs are an incredible source of high-quality nutrients that many of us are deficient in — especially high-quality protein and fat. And it is my strong belief that they are a nearly ideal fuel source for most of us. One caveat: Please choose the higher quality free-range organic varieties. An egg is considered organic if the chicken was only fed organic food, which means it will not have accumulated high levels of pesticides from the grains (mostly Genetically Modified corn) fed to typical chickens.
Article obtained from DR. MERCOLA ,
www.mercola.com