Eggs – Friend or Foe?

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Eggs – Friend or Foe?
There is probably not a single other food on the face of the planet that attracts as much debate and controversy as the simple, good old-fashioned egg. Some experts say that eating an egg is the same as smoking a pack of cigarettes while others would have you only eat eggs. Like it is very often, the truth is somewhere in the middle and one needs to have all the information before they make their own stand and their own decision. When it comes to eggs (and other matters of nutrition science), it is extremely important to have all the facts.
Eggs are bad for you
The idea that eggs are bad for you hails back to 1980s when cholesterol was all the rage when it came to nutrition, health risks and so on. The Soviet Union was getting weaker and weaker and the western world and us with it had to find new bad guys. Cholesterol was definitely one of them. It needs to be pointed out that this was also a time when cholesterol metabolism and its impact on the health risks was not understood as well as it is today.
The fact, however, is that a large egg contains around 185 mg of cholesterol. This cannot be denied. For instance, American Heart Association, due to these findings, recommends that no more than 300 mg of cholesterol are ingested in a day. This means that two eggs for breakfast are more than you should ingest in a day, not even factoring in other foods that you eat during the day which may also contain cholesterol.
There have also been some newer studies that have shown that eating more than three eggs in a week had increased plaque in their neck arteries than those who ate less than two eggs a week. Another study has shown that eating eggs increases TMAO levels in the blood, an organic compound found in the body and suspected to increase the formation of plaque as well. And as we all know, plaque leads to cardiovascular events such as heart attacks and strokes.health benefits of eggs
Eggs are good for you

One the other hand, there have been numerous and extremely large studies that have shown that eating eggs does not increase the risks of heart disease of any kind. The most famous of these is definitely the study that was conducted by scientists from the Harvard School of Public Health that involves 117,000 people and which showed that eating more than an egg a day does not increase the risk of cardiovascular disease.

The absence of risks is not the only reason why eggs are good for you. Besides the cholesterol that they DO contain, eggs also contain a chockfull of other nutrients, many of which are essential for your health. They contain various Vitamin B complexes, as well as Vitamin A in abundance, selenium, various other minerals and vitamins such as manganese, zinc, potassium, iron, Folate as well as 6 grams of high quality protein. We are talking a single egg here.
In addition to this, it has been found that eating eggs actually can be beneficial for the cardiovascular system, thanks to the fact that consumption of eggs can increase the levels of HDL, also known as the good cholesterol while changing LDL, the bad one, to a subtype that is not connected to increased risk of heart disease.
There are other very interesting facts on eggs that you should learn about and that you can find here. We believe that eating eggs is not bad for you, but we do encourage you to investigate more and make your own decision.

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