Whole Egg Nutrition
Dec 17th 2008 · by Catherine Osthaus
Eggs are a staple in low carb eating. My family can eat about five to six dozen eggs in a week. We just love them. Are we crazy for eating so much??? Nope! Eggs are a great source of high quality protein and many vitamins. They are also a brain food because the yolks are high in long chain fatty acids DHA and EPA. Almost all the fat is found in the yolk. In children these kinds of fats are essential for the developing of the nervous system and the brain.
That does not mean that adults should shun the egg yolks. Most of the nutrition is in the egg yolk! All of the carotenoids, essential fatty acids, vitamins A, E, D, and K are found in the yolk. None of these are found in the whites. These vitamins are essential for eye, bone, and heart health.
The cholesterol in eggs is not the cause of high cholesterol in the body. Cholesterol is vital to keep the integrity of the cell membrane. Eggs are also high in lecithin. Lecithin actually helps break down fat during digestion and lowers total cholesterol levels. The propaganda that eggs are unhealthy and cause high cholesterol and heart disease is just that… propaganda.
Eggs are also a source of methionine which is an essential amino acid (building block of protein) that your body cannot produce on its own and must get from diet. Methionine improves skin tone, slows cell aging, and is needed for strong healthy hair and nails. The reason for this is because it is essential to build our cells. Methionine also helps in the removal of heavy metals such as lead and mercury from the body.
Liquid eggs in a carton such as egg beaters are far inferior when it comes to the egg nutrition. They are made with just plain egg whites and are pasteurized. Eggs are pasteurized to kill food borne bacteria but in the process they also remove heat sensitive vitamins. So basically you are removing the nutrient rich egg yolk and removing vitamins heating. Chances are that these eggs are also from sickly chickens that are fed substandard food and live in crowded cages and don’t see the light of day.
Healthy good quality eggs come from healthy chickens. The omega 6 and omega 3 ratio can become very unbalanced in poorly fed chickens. This unbalanced ratio is what can cause disease and illness. When chickens are allowed to eat bugs and worms out on pasture they are much healthier and produce a better fatty acid profile of 1:1 of omega-6 and omega-3.
Whole eggs are nutrient dense, high in fats and high in quality protein. These make them a great food that helps satiate and reduce hunger and cravings. They are a perfect for breakfast, lunch or dinner and make great snacks.
To your health and wellness,
Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Comments RSS 
I cringe when I see this. It doesn’t matter how “happy” the chicken is, or whose backyard she’s running around in. It doesn’t matter if the chicken feed is gourmet. Salmonella is a naturally occurring bacteria that is found in the environment; in the soil, in bugs and worms! A single fly can transmit salmonella to a hen. And then pass it on to you IN an egg.
Eggs are the gold standard of nutrition, but unless you’re using a pasteurized shell egg, you have to be careful.
And spreading misinformation like this is just not cool.
There are bugs that make us sick and there are bugs that make us healthy. It is all a balance that we have to keep. It is a balance that I am struggling to regain (with my battle with candida yeast). With the abundance of antibiotics for every illness under the skies we have killed the natural bacteria in our intestines that protects us and our immune systems. This is what makes us sick. We don’t have the proper protection from pathogens. Before the invention of refrigerators and boiling canning methods, food was preserved with bacteria. We get foods like pickles, sauerkraut, pickled beets, pickled onions,, kimchi, lacto-fermented salsa, yogurt, kefir etc.
We are not meant to live in a sterile world! Our bodies are supposed to be strong, robust and healthy.
My husband grew up on a organic dairy farm. When he was a baby, he would be crawling on the barn floor amongst the cows while his mom would be milking. She was a busy mom of 4 children, milking and feeding cows, feeding chickens, dogs and cats, and tending the fields. Her kids bathed only on Sundays.. He ate his fair share of dirt, shoveled plenty of chicken and cow manure and drank raw milk straight from the cow.
With kids bringing in colds into our house he is the one that never gets sick from them. When he does catch the odd cold he is over them in a day or two.
Pastuerization is not the answer. Increasing immune health is!