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Are Eggs Evil?

March 17, 2015   30 Comments

This is a good time of year to talk about chicken eggs. I receive a bunch of questions about them so I thought I would try to answer them.

Eggs and Cholesterol

From Erica:

I am an active 40-year-old woman who has normal cholesterol and recently started on the egg bandwagon of boiled eggs for a mid-morning snack.

It's hard for me to break away from the past notions that eggs are linked to high cholesterol. Can a person who is reasonably fit and has normal cholesterol eat a hard-boiled egg daily?

I feel like I'm doing the nutritional equivalent of eating a pound of butter at breakfast by eating an egg a day.

Wow! A pound of butter! Erica is feeling really guilty. Hang in there, Erica.

I must say that I am completely annoyed with how long it takes for dietary guidelines to change after scientific research has shown that eggs aren’t evil.

Eggs were considered evil because they contain a high level of cholesterol.

High levels of bad cholesterol found in your blood increase your risk for a heart attack. This led to the thinking that you need to eat less cholesterol to decrease the levels in your system. Eggs have a lot of cholesterol so it made sense to avoid them.

BUT! And this is a very big BUT. It turns out that if you eat a lot of cholesterol it doesn’t end up in your blood. The cholesterol that you eat gets broken down in the stomach and tossed out or used to make bile acids to help you digest food.

A friend of mine with a high bad cholesterol number recently cut out red meat and eggs. After six months of restrictions, his bad cholesterol number didn’t shift down. He credits his high cholesterol number to the genetics of his family.

Where do you get all that BAD cholesterol if it isn’t from your diet? You get it from your body. Every cell in your body makes cholesterol (those rascals).

Are there foods that increase your cholesterol levels? Yes! Trans fats and saturated fats (meat, daily) raise your total cholesterol.

Here is a great article about foods and strategies that can lower your overall cholesterol level: 11 Tips to Lower Your Cholesterol. It mentions that eggs are not implicated in the crime.

The sad thing about fear of eggs is that people might reach for less healthy foods at breakfast (like crappy cereals) because they don’t know it is okay to eat them.

Eggs are inexpensive, fast to cook, low in calories, and nutritious. You can’t go wrong eating them!!

Here are some “eggcellent” recipes for your perusal:

Do you eat eggs? How do you serve them?

Other posts you might like:

cheapeggsb

Cheap Eggs - Should You Buy Them?

Does anyone else get concerned when they see a tag like the one above? Ninety-seven cents for eggs?!!

angeledeggsb

Lighten The Devil In These Eggs

Yes, this photo does look like "deviled" eggs, but Snack Girl has a fix to make them much less evil....

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First 20 Comments: ( See all 30 )

Eggs are so good for you! Yolks too, they are great brain food. I love them on a sandwich, I have a creation that uses salsa and some cheese and veggies I adore: https://scrumptiousgruel.wordpress.com/2013/08/29/croque-el…

And there are so many different ways to cook them- alone or in dishes- you can incorporate them into a healthy lifestyle and never get bored with them!

The law was passed in 2008 requiring that the birds must have enough space to spread their wings by 2015. So, your farmer had seven years to comply with the law that is encouraging the egg industry to raise the chickens cage-free.

This law will lead to healthier eggs with less samonella and less torture for the birds. It seems that your farmer wanted to keep his chickens in tiny cages with more chance of passing on disease. Too bad for him, but good for the chickens and good for the consumers.

I'm happy to pay more for eggs that come from places that are willing to adhere to the new law and make it healthier for us all. Even with the price increase, eggs are a steal for a perfect food.

Sugar is what raises your blood cholesterol levels. Cut down on sugars, reduce the amounts of wheat, and bad cholesterol levels will drop. I have several relatives and friends who are living proof. Wheat has been changed over the decades in an effort to improve its yields, and it affects your sugar levels more than it did in Grandma's day.

Just want to put a plug in for buying eggs that are certified humane (even more important than buying organic, IMO), as someone who used to work on a farm with free-range chickens. Even with new regulations, factory farmed chickens lead miserable lives. If that isn't an issue for you, free range humanely raised eggs have better nutrition. If you buy some and crack open a factory farmed egg and a free range egg, you'll be shocked at the difference in appearance between the yolk in both. Egg yolk should be a vibrant bright yellow, and you'll see that in free range eggs. Since I'm not on the farm anymore, I buy Nellie's, which are great!

One of my favorite healthy meals is to pan sauté with coconut oil some onion and garlic, toss in a huge handful of french cut green beans(right from the freezer), then add in a lightly beaten organic egg or two, splash in a little low sodium soy sauce, cook until the egg is set, then flip. So yummy and reminds me of egg foo young. Love your website!!!

What are the best eggs to buy? I know free range but what names do they go by??

@Annie - I wrote this article about how I choose eggs:

https://snack-girl.com/snack/cheap-eggs/

My favorite are local eggs.

Thanks snack girl! I'm on a quest now to find the best eggs as possible.

On Easter Morning our parents served blue, pink and green scrambled eggs. It was fun; but, frankly, the blue eggs looked so unappetizing. I shoved them off on my sisters!

We are so lucky to have access to fresh eggs from chickens living on the ranch where my husband works. Yum!

I'm also lucky that I have good genes when it comes to cholesterol levels.

When my husband went to a Diabetic class to learn how to eat correctly he was told to change from white flour foods to wheat. I see that Diane said the wheat affects your sugar levels. Is this information scientifically proven Snackgirl? What should my husband be eating if not wheat?

Thanks Snack Girl!! I'm still trying to get my husband's brain past the old guidelines, but we all still eat eggs for breakfast almost everyday. Four healthy, low cholesterol people eating this high quality protein with no ill effects. Thanks for all your wonderful posts!!!

I adore eggs! They're amazing scrambled with veggies, over-easy on sandwiches, or baked with tomatoes/tomato sauce and a little cheese - basically any way! So versatile and healthy.

Eggs are great! I buy mine from a local farmer that treats his chickens very well.In the spring and fall he sells flats of pullet eggs for 3.00 A flat contains 36 eggs. Pullet eggs are wonderful when used to make a souffle. The whites really beat to very stiff peaks.My weakness is a hard boiled egg drizzled with aged balsamic vinegar. If anyone wants to know a surefire way to get hard boiled eggs that peel easily just let me know.

I love eggs! Until my doctor says specifically to me not to eat them, then I will never stop eating them. You can have them for every meal if you wanted to. You can do so much with them. but when I buy eggs I go for cage free or ORGANIC. There is a farmer that goes to my farmer's market that has chickens and they are only caged at night for obvious reasons, but his eggs are really tasty. I say if you can then try to buy from a local farmer, but if you can't make the trip then when your at the store buy cage free/ free range, or organic. Also don't be afraid to ask the store about the vendors that they buy from. They might look at you like your a pain, but hey, it's your health. =)

How to quickly peel a hard boiled egg:

http://youtu.be/FkWISKfgqZ0

Sounds weird, but if works every time like Magic!

We love eggs. I am here in California and have two friends who have chicken farms! We get all the wonderful, organic eggs we need and eat away. I have an avocado tree in my back yard...the possibilities are endless!

Eating eggs that are from caged laying chicks may be inexpensive but inhumane care of them make eating them tragic. Try cage free eggs from a certifiyed source and you will pay more but with a good conscience for humanity.

@ Madeline - in Diabetes nutrition classes your husband would have been advised to substitute foods made with 100% whole wheat for foods made with refined ("white") flour.

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