Eggs & Cholesterol

[Anubis]

So I always knew that eggs were high in cholesterol but I just realized how high they were.

While entering "Jumbo eggs" from Country Creek into my Fitday food library I came upon the section to enter the cholesterol content. (270mg - which is 90% of your daily intake)

Wow! [img]/images/graemlins/shocked.gif[/img]

I eat 2 of these Jumbo eggs along with turkey bacon and toast. This is just breakfast. I'm sure by the days end I've consumed around 300-400% of my Cholesterol intake for the day. Now currently my bloodwork is fine. But I have heart disease in my family (grandfather died at 37 from a heart attack, uncle had triple bypass at the age of 45, my dad is on cholesterol lowering medication).

I know the easy answer is to stop eating the eggs and find an alternate source of protein for breakfast. I'm not ready to sacrifice eggs as they are a large part of my morning.

So I'm wondering, with all of today's technology and science and chemical engineering with food - Is there a reduced cholesterol egg somewhere out there? Perhaps Trader Joe's or somewhere else?

I'm sure there isn't as much cholesterol in a regular, or large sized egg so I could make the compromise there. But the Jumbo eggs give me more bang for my buck in terms of calories and protein in conjunction with a bulking diet.

[Marykaa]

I eat one egg plus 2 egg whites.. the whites contain the protein without the cholesterol. They are available pasturized in liquid form

Simply Egg Whites

[OldGuy]

http://www.urbanext.uiuc.edu/eggs/re...olesterol.html

[Anubis]

Mary,
do egg-whites taste just as good, or will I have to make a sacrifice there?

[Anubis]

Thanks for the link OG - that was interesting. Now if only I knew how my body handled cholesterol. Perhaps I should have quarterly blood levels drawn to see if my triglycerides have increased.

[Marykaa]

They taste "less" but in scrambled eggs with other stuff, it's ok. Guess you have to try it once

[OldGuy]

Anubis, I'll make 1 or 2 Omega 3 eggs with the equivalent of 4 eggs whites from a product simliar to Mary's. They taste fine.

I think it's like you said. You'll have to do more research on how the body handles cholesterol and than figure out how you handle it.

[Clark]

Anubis

The two main dietary factors associated with elevated blood cholesterol and therefore heart diease are high intakes of saturated fat and trans-fat. Food cholesterol doesn't have as much to do with your blood cholesterol as you might think, especially if you are physically fit, and I'm going to assume you are since you are an active participant on this forum.

The two main Lipoproteins that regulate blood cholesterol are LDL (Low Density Lipoprotein) and HDL (High Density Lipoprotein). I'm sure you've heard that HDL is the good cholesterol and LDL is bad and in general that characterization is correct. This is because HDL's compostion has more protein relative to its lipid content and LDL has more lipid relative to it's protein content. Furthermore, HDL is the guy that scavenges excess cholesterol and phosolipids from tissues for disposal after the LDL delivers them via the circulatory system.

There is no dietary way to significantly effect HDL, exercise is the only way to raise it's levels. That said, as long as you stay away from trans-fat and saturated fat and continue to be physcially fit your blood cholesterol should stay normal, even given you family history and your consumption of eggs. The yolks have so many vitamins and minerals, and good fat (oleic acid - the monounsatuate found in olive oil) in them you would really be missing out. Just keep your diet in check otherwise and check your blood lipids every so often and you will be more than fine.

Clark

[Milko Georgiev]

http://www.ravnskov.nu/cholesterol.htm
http://www.thincs.org/
http://www.chelationtherapyonline.com/articles/p72.htm

I sometimes eat 7 jumbos at a time.

[Anubis]

Thanks Clark,
Your response is very informative.

Milko,
Thanks for the links, they look very interesting. I'll have to read them more in depth when I have a little more time.

[BjsAust]

I havnt read all the links, but I guess they're variations of 'cholesterol in eggs dont give you cholesterol' studies. For 2 a day, I'd keep eating them, but with your family history getting your levels tested every 6 months wouldnt be a bad idea. If they start going bad then adjust the diet. Egg whites are an option, especially if you start eating lots of eggs each day, but the yolk also has more good stuff in it then whites as well.

Plus they taste good.

[Marykaa]

(just to say.. I more and more believe those who say that cholesterol problemes are mostly genetic, and eat the egg whites because of they have less calories)

BJSAUAST what's the good stuff in the yolks? can that be gotten elsewhere? I've mostly heard of protein, and the whites have more of that.

[BjsAust]

Dunno, I'll see if I can find out. I tend to take lessons away from my reading rather than facts.

[nyguy]

I too was used to eat 2 jumbo eggs everyday but I eliminated all the yolk from my diet since my last cholesterol test came pretty high, and I will have another one done within a month or so. Let's see if that's going to change anything.

[BjsAust]

http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?t...dspice&dbid=92

Thats got some stuff about the yolks under the health benefits section.

[Clark]

Temp - Marykaa

http://www.cholesterol-and-health.com/Egg_Yolk.html

This illustrates pretty clearly all the benefits of the yolks.

[Marykaa]

Thanks CLARK so I really need to take the egg whites only as exta Protein, and not as Yolk replacement.

I'll make sure to correct what I say to people as well.

[Lost Dog]

The last time I had my chol levels checked, they came out at HDL 56 & LDL 127, with a triglyercide score of 58. This was while eating about a ten eggs a week (yolks and all). Last year, when I ate even more eggs than that (18-24 per week), my scores were HDL 85, LDL 96, and Trig 36.

There's something else at work here....