Over the years the nutrition powers that be have flip-flopped on whether or not eggs are good for us. One year they're villainized and the next, they're a super-food. Well guess what? They've been defamed once again and this time we're told that eating egg yolks is almost as bad as lighting up a cigarette! I don't know about you, but it sure is tiring to have to question the healthfulness of our diets on a regular basis. I don't want to eat anything that is unhealthy but really, are eggs that bad for me?
Since this "news" about eggs came out, I had to get to work finding out the truth about eggs. It's pretty hard for me to believe that such a wholesome food can be so bad for me. As I've said before, I'm not a nutritionist so this information is for your entertainment only.
With all this talk about eggs Chris told me that his grandfather, former butcher at the Drewsville Store and egg lover, indulged in eggs and bacon nearly every day for most of his life. He lived to be 92 and he didn't die from clogged arteries or a heart attack. Talk about a lot of cholestorol! So my question is, how do we arrive at the conclusion that one food should be avoided because of its higher cholesterol content? What happened to following a balanced diet? Were the eggs that the study participants ate from pasture-raised hens? Maybe each of us has a different level of tolerance for cholesterol based on heredity.
With all this in mind, I came to the conclusion that there are just too many variables to pin a bad reputation on just one food. The Weston Price Foundation has numerous articles on the reasons why we need cholesterol (even the so-called "bad" kind) which are quite intriguing. Mother Earth News came out with a great article in 2007 comparing conventional eggs vs. eggs from pasture-raised hens. The study concluded that the eggs from pasture-raised hens contain 1/3 less cholesterol and 1/4 the saturated fat of their conventionally raised counterparts.
I suppose we could all take a good look at our diets and make some adjustments but do eggs really have to be eliminated? People will start eating eggs again next week or next year when the authorities on nutrition change their minds about eggs yet again. In the meantime though, you'll find me at my breakfast table each morning with a golden-yolked, nutrient dense, pasture-raised egg!
Caitlin
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