Eggs Exposed: What You Need to Know
So it’s the day after Easter and you have a boatload of decorated hard boiled eggs you don’t know what to do with – and later this week, you will likely “find” the ones your children didn’t find when the rotten egg stench hits your nose.
If the eggs were left in the Easter basket for more than two hours, you’ll have to toss them, according to www.incredibleegg.org. But, If you kept them in the fridge, they will be good to eat for up to a week if they’re still in the shell! So what now? Well, before you go diving in, there are a few things you need to know.
Most people think “protein” and “healthy” when they think eggs, but look at the nutritional information.
Hard Boiled Egg:
77 calories
48 calories from fat
5.28gms of fat
.56gms of carbs
6.26 gms of protein
212mg cholesterol
Over 62% of the egg’s calories comes from fat and only 34% of it’s calories from protein, so it’s more of a fat source than a protein source. HOWEVER (and that’s a BIG however), that all changes if you take out the yolk. Look at the two parts of the egg separately.
Egg Yolk:
54 calories
5gms fat (45 calories coming from fat)
2gms saturated fat
1gm carb
3gm protein
210mg cholesterol
Egg White:
17 calories
.06gms of fat (less than a calorie from fat)
0 Saturated Fat
.24gms of carbs
3.6gms of protein (14 calories from protein)
0 Cholesterol
How much is too much?
Besides fat and calorie intake, we also have to consider our cardiovascular health. I know cholesterol is somewhat of a mystery to many. We all know we are supposed to avoid it, but many of us go through life never REALLY thinking WE are the one who’s going to drop dead of heart attack or stroke because we ate too many eggs. Of course that would not be the only cause but, if eggs may increase cholesterol, why not be careful not to eat too many of them.
Sure, we can see the fat building up on our thighs, but we don’t see the plaque build up in our arteries. Just because we don’t see it doesn’t mean it is not there. The reality is, too much cholesterol does cause narrowing and hardening of the arteries – whether we know it’s happening or not. Unfortunately, most of us have no CLUE how much cholesterol we consume.
After doing a bit of research I found that Mayo Clinic had some good advice:
- Eat 4 egg yolks or fewer per week
- If you are healthy, eat less than 300mgs of cholesterol a day
- If you are diabetic, have bad cholesterol or have cardiovascular disease, limit cholesterol to less than 200mgs per day
- It is also important to reduce your cholesterol for the rest of the day when eating eggs.
Avoid or Limit High Cholesterol Foods:
- Egg Yolk
- Caviar/Fish Roe (Watch out Sushi Lovers!)
- Liver
- Butter
- Shrimp (Prawns, Camarones)
- Fast Food7.
- Oil-Packed Fish (fish packaged in oil)
- Cheese: Port de Salut, Fontina, Gouda, Cream Cheese, Gruyere & Cheddar are the highest
- Processed Sausage, Lamb or Duck
- Shellfish
Increase these Cholesterol-Fighting Foods:
- Oatmeal
- Fish & Omega-3 Fatty Acids
- Walnuts, Almonds & Nuts (1.5oz a day)
- Olive Oil (2 tablespoons a day)
- Foods with added plant sterols or stanols. Margarines, orange juice and yogurt drinks with added plant sterols can help reduce LDL cholesterol by more than 10 percent.
Although eggs also have good nutrients in them too, you just may want to eat them with caution. Simply cut back on the yolks and increase your egg whites so you can not only look fit on the outside, but be fit on the inside too! Have an eggcellent day!
Learn more from my sources:
Top 5 Foods to Lower Cholesterol, from Mayo Clinic
Top 10 High-Cholesterol Foods to Limit or Avoid
Cute Hard-Boiled Egg Chickens pic was from SeriousEats.com
5 Comments
Malita Jones (@curlsz)
ok i specifically came back here b/c the results of this persons big egg experiment are out – he does share that he was healthy when he began this experiment, which I agree is a good factor http://www.livestrong.com/blog/are-eggs-good-for-your-health/
Brav Al
Good luck ,Great post,y love you!Thanks for the info it had cleared out too many things in my mind. Your recommendations are really good.
http://www.areavocadosfattening.com
cassie70
I’ve done some research on eggs myself and read some things written by doctors. There is a lot of disagreement on the subject in the fitness industry. I personally believe that most of the nutritious value comes from the yolk and they should not be removed entirely; however, you have to watch how many you eat. I generally stick with the rule of throwing out half. So for example, if I make scrambled eggs, I would use 2 whole eggs and 2 additional egg whites for added protein.
Malita Jones (@curlsz)
it’s funny b/c another fitness blogger i follow just posted egg recipes on her site today – this seems to be one of those foods that everyone has a conflicting opinion on – that and shrimp – to eat or not to eat that is the questions – i guess if you over eat on them it’s like any other food – everything good in moderation as your body actually does need fat, cholesterol and calories to function.
i think a writer at LiveStrong is even doing an egg experiment – he’s eating 3 eggs everyday for two months to see if they impacted is cholesterol etc – but even in that everyone is different, some people just don’t have cholesterol issues – ie my mother, and some do ie me!
BobbieJoe Derhak
I understand your reasoning behind eggs and high cholesterol, on the flip side, researchers have found that there is no definitive correlation between the cholesterol you eat and the cholesterol in your blood stream. Here is a link that offers a different point of view on eggs. (I guess I am kind of biased because I eat whole eggs everyday and am thin and healthy.)
http://doctorsdietitian.blogspot.com/2009/07/cracking-myths-on-eggs-and-cholesterol.html