I live on egg whites, Baked skinless chicken breast and salmon along with other fish for my protein sources for years and my G*d D**n cholesterol number was 333 so I had to go on medication. While all tha t time I was doing resistance training 3-5 day per week (depending on the training phase I was in ) and a reasonable amount of cardio too. I now enjoy an egg yolk or two with my breakfast and with the meds, my numbers are in the 120-30 range.
This week I’ve had the pleasure of entertaining some of my closest fitness buddies for a few days here in Tampa, and upon awakening, several of us found ourselves facing the all too common dilemma deciding what to eat for breakfast.
Vinny (Del Monte) chose to go with some left-over lobster and steak from our evening at Shula’s the night before (where, by the way, John Romaniello joined me in being inducted in Shula’s 48 oz. Club, by ordering—and finishing—their signature 48 oz. Porterhouse. Nice work, John), while I decided to go with the more conventional egg.
You see, truth is, I like eggs and tend to eat a lot of them.
Now, I’m sure you’ve heard a time or two before that you should be mindful of consuming too many unhatched chickens as their cholesterol content is rather high.
I’ve even heard the recommendation that eggs should only be eaten once per week to avoid cholesterol issues. If that’s the case, I’m probably due to die rather soon.
Fortunately, it’s not.
You see, for years we have been told that cholesterol intake should be kept to a bare minimum as doing so will help to decrease blood cholesterol levels and promote overall health, and although the theory of lowering dietary cholesterol intake to lower internal cholesterol makes logical sense, the theory doesn’t quite pan out, as our bodies are, generally, more complex creatures than our logical minds give them credit for.
Fact is, when dietary intake of cholesterol is decreased, the liver compensates by producing more cholesterol, leaving total cholesterol levels relatively unchanged. In the same way, if cholesterol consumption is increased, the liver produces less cholesterol, and again, total cholesterol values will not be substantially altered.
Now that’s not to say that we should go hog wild with our intake of cholesterol, but it does mean that one can expect serum cholesterol levels to remain relatively stable over a wide range of dietary intakes.
Given this information, you may be wondering why the body would ever produce more cholesterol if cholesterol is so “bad”, and that’s a good question.
The truth is, cholesterol actually acts as an antioxidant against dangerous free radicals within the blood and is also necessary for the production of certain hormones that help to fight against heart disease.
When there are high levels of undesirable substances in the blood (caused by the dietary intake of damaged fats, highly processed “unhealthy” foods, and large quantities of sugars), cholesterol levels rise in order to combat these substances.
Blaming heart disease on high cholesterol is like blaming infection on high levels of antibodies (special proteins produced by the body in order to defend against foreign bacteria and infectious agents). If the body allowed cholesterol to fall in the presence of large amounts of free radicals, our risk for heart disease would increase, not decrease, and fortunately our bodies won’t let that happen.
So, the answer to decreasing blood cholesterol levels is not avoiding omelets and not necessarily decreasing dietary cholesterol intake, but rather improving ones diet overall by eating healthier in general and avoiding the other harmful types of foods mentioned.
Combine that with increased physical activity and both you and your cholesterol levels will be in even better shape.
Enjoy today’s post? Learn something new? Love eggs? Question? Comment?
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Joel
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Hey Joel, you could also follow your story up with the fact that the fat in those eggs is predominately monounsaturated which raises HDL and lowers LDL.
And by the way that 48 oz’er consisted of 50% monounsaturated fat. The saturated component amounts to 45%, but about 1/3 of that was in the form of stearic acid which has the effect of also raising HDL while having no effect on LDL. This can be found in the Nutrient Database for Standard Reference at the USDA web site.
hey, joel,
i remember being laughed at many times over the last 25 years when i told people not to deprive themselves of eggs and whole milk and other so called high cholesterol foods. it is so common sense to me!! even after all the research that’s out there, there are people who have been so brainwashed over the years and choose to stay ignorant, like the people who believed the earth was flat!!! i cringe at the thought of nature’s most perfect food (egg yolks) being thrown down the drain!! yikes!!!!!!
one more thing. not only my family and i enjoy whole eggs regularly, my 3 beautiful cats also receive a raw egg yolk (raw egg whites are not healthy for cats) daily with brewers yeast sprinkled on top. they love it, and it keeps them healthy and with a very shiny coat!!!
not only eggs do not raise cholesterol, but they also contain lutein for healthy vision and sulfur for healthy skin and hair. remember, eggs contain all the nutrients needed for a new life (the baby chick) to grow on!!!!! it’s truly and amazing food!
how did i forget that eggs contain lecithin?? lecithin’s molecule has one hydrophilic side and one lipophilic. the lipophilic side binds to cholesterol and excretes it. a natural, whole grain, high fiber diet does the same thing. the fiber binds and excretes excess cholesterol. so, a person who lives on white bread, pasta and rice will have to deal with the consequences of those poor choices.
I can only agree with previous speakers, and especially dimitra. Egg’s togheter with milk are the two most complete foods avaliable on the planet, containing all the nutrients you need to survive, excluding vitamin c. I can’t stand the thought of throwing away such good food either just beacuse of the calorie intake, and frankly I don’t really buy even the calorie restriction argument for throwing them out, at least not for most people.
One large egg contains about 70 cal. 45 of these come from fat, or the yolk. Assume that you cook yourself a breakfast with a base of 3 eggs. That’s 135 cal coming from the yolk, which equals to not even two apples. Divide those 135 cal over the rest of your meals that you eat that day and you can see that you don’t have to cut back on a lot to save in those calories to make the equation go round. In addition you will also have covered 45% of your RDI of vitamin D, 91% of your RDI of selen and THREE times the amount of your needed amount of vitamin B12. Just to mention a few.
So eat that yolk, damn it!
I sometimes go weeks eating 3 eggs for breakfast everrrrrrrrryy dayy! So this information is really awesome to know! My friends would always tell me it was unhealthy or that I would eventually get heart problems from all the cholesterol, but next time I hear that, i’ll just show them this post :))
Crack the egg in half but hold the halves together over a cup or bowl. gently rock the egg back and forth switching the yolk between the halves – eventually, all the white will runn out the crack and you will be left with a beautifully whole yolk ….. I never do it though … I eat mine!!
I’m not convinced that the cholesterol in eggs can be absorbed by the body anyway. Can it?
I have high cholesterol and my doctor wants to start me on drugs to reduce it. I’ve made a pact with him: Give me 3 months and let me see if I can turn things around in the right direction. If not, I’ll try the drugs. The 3 months expires in mid-Feb, 2010.
I’m very new to this program – still at the planning stage, but will start this week – and am being ‘slightly’ bombarded by well-meaning friends who are telling me to cut back on meat, eggs, etc, yet I was of the opinion that good general dietary practices and exercise are more the way to go in order to lower cholesterol. Having read all these great posts, starting with Joel’s, I’m feeling much more confident, so a BIG thank-you to all!
By the way, I love eggs. And the eggs I eat come straight from my own healthy, organically-fed chooks (‘chooks’ is Aussie for chickens). :)
Hi Joel, thanks for this one because I love eggs! I have replaced oatmeal with eggs every morning and I have really seen the health/fat loss benefits
This is a “cracking” debate though! (sorry for that one, British humor)
hey Joel,
Alright so i get ur point that eggs dont increase cholesterol. Agreed. But what u did mention is that an intake of highly processed foods and sugar could increase cholesterol levels. So what about people following your CYWT program, which i have just started myself. I mean im sure it works, but what are the chances of the all out cheat days increasing our cholesterol levels?
Are you certain about that?
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Hey, it’s Joel! So you want to know a little more about me, huh? Well, I’d be happy to oblige :-)
I guess it all started back in 2001 (my freshman year of college) when I was just a “skinny fat” 19-year old kid. At the time, I was spending close to 2 hours a day in the gym (now my workouts last about 30 minutes), and despite my efforts, you’d probably never guess I worked out a day in my life by looking at me...