A common New Year's Resolution is to eat healthier, but of course this often doesn't last long, as over the years, we seem to have developed a warped sense of what is actually "healthy" when it comes to food, and what we think of as "healthy" often doesn't taste all that great. After all, who wants to eat "low-fat" (i.e. low-flavor) foods all the time? The good news is, truly healthy food tastes awesome! So you can actually eat well, and enjoy your food! But first you have to learn how to tell what healthy food really is - which is one of the reasons I started this blog in the first place.
A great example - and one I will explain in more detail today - is the oft-vilified egg. I have defended eggs on many occasions, but I haven't written about them in a while, and I thought it would be a good topic to revisit, with all the talk of healthy eating going around at the start of the new year.
So just why did eggs get such a bad rap? And what is the real deal with cholesterol? Read on to find out the truth about eggs - and what they actually do for your health....
A great example - and one I will explain in more detail today - is the oft-vilified egg. I have defended eggs on many occasions, but I haven't written about them in a while, and I thought it would be a good topic to revisit, with all the talk of healthy eating going around at the start of the new year.
So just why did eggs get such a bad rap? And what is the real deal with cholesterol? Read on to find out the truth about eggs - and what they actually do for your health....
Unfortunately, eggs were an innocent victim of the cholesterol myth (or, more specifically, the lipid hypothesis posited by Ancel Keys in the 1950's - see earlier posts on this). Once the mainstream media got hold of the idea that foods containing cholesterol were bad for you, in a panic, doctors and nutritionists alike began recommending patients with high cholesterol or heart problems to avoid eggs at all costs - and so they did - never realizing that by doing so, they were essentially throwing the baby out with the bathwater!
For many years, we have been told that we should keep our cholesterol intake as low as possible, as this will help decrease blood cholesterol, and improve our health. While this makes sense on a superficial level, if you really understand how the body works, it actually doesn't pan out that way at all.
In fact, for most people, the majority of cholesterol in the blood does not come from food at all - it's produced by your liver! Your body works to maintain a state of balance, and if you eat less cholesterol, well, guess what - your body just produces more of it to compensate! If you eat more cholesterol, your body regulates the production, and keeps your blood cholesterol levels more or less steady over time, so regardless of how much cholesterol you eat, your blood cholesterol will be about the same.
(This is why low-fat diets have been notoriously unsuccessful at controlling cholesterol - hence the incredible surge in the use of cholesterol-lowering drugs over the past 20 years.) This is also the reason why you are supposed to fast before a blood cholesterol test. Any temporary spike that may be caused by eating a meal containing fat will then have subsided, and you'll get a picture of your normal blood cholesterol levels - outside of the influence of any recent dietary fat consumption.
Okay but wait a minute.... If cholesterol is so bad, then why is your body producing so much of it??
Ahh - that's a great question - so glad you asked!
The truth is....cholesterol isn't bad per se.... In fact, it's actually an essential part of a healthy body. Cholesterol makes up a large part of the brain, as well as much of the cell walls throughout your entire body, and also is required for the production of many necessary hormones.
But more importantly, at least when it comes to the blood cholesterol discussion, cholesterol acts as an antioxidant within the blood, fighting inflammation caused by free radicals, and it is also used as intravenous "spackle" one could say. That is, the body uses it to patch damaged arteries caused by inflammation and inflammatory substances.
The truth is, many people with heart disease, clogged arteries, and other inflammatory diseases DO have high blood cholesterol! But blaming the cholesterol for their disease is like blaming infection on high levels of antibodies. Or, as one of my favorite analogies goes, it's like blaming firefighters for starting fires, just because you see them wherever there's a fire!
Just like the firefighters, in fact, the cholesterol is actually there to help solve the problem.
When there are high levels of undesirable substances in the blood (caused by the dietary intake of damaged fats (i.e. processed vegetable oils), highly processed “junk” foods, and large quantities of sugars), cholesterol levels rise in order to combat these substances. If your body allowed cholesterol to fall in the presence of these unhealthy substances, your risk for heart disease would actually increase, and your body doesn't want that to happen.
So, the answer to decreasing blood cholesterol levels is not avoiding eggs, and not necessarily decreasing dietary cholesterol intake, but rather improving your diet overall by eating healthier in general (healthy, quality, organic proteins, lots of fresh vegetables, naturally fermented foods, etc.) and avoiding the other harmful types of foods mentioned - such as processed oils, simple carbs, sugars, and other highly processed foods.
Combine this with regular physical activity and both you and your cholesterol levels will be in even better shape.
So if you want to eat healthier this year, welcome yummy eggs back into your diet! Eat fresh, whole eggs from chickens raised on pasture, eating bugs and grass and all the things they're naturally suppose to eat, and you'll get even more heart-healthy fats, Omega-3 fatty acids, and antioxidant vitamins. Plus they taste 10 times as amazing!
To your health - this year and beyond,
Rose.
For many years, we have been told that we should keep our cholesterol intake as low as possible, as this will help decrease blood cholesterol, and improve our health. While this makes sense on a superficial level, if you really understand how the body works, it actually doesn't pan out that way at all.
In fact, for most people, the majority of cholesterol in the blood does not come from food at all - it's produced by your liver! Your body works to maintain a state of balance, and if you eat less cholesterol, well, guess what - your body just produces more of it to compensate! If you eat more cholesterol, your body regulates the production, and keeps your blood cholesterol levels more or less steady over time, so regardless of how much cholesterol you eat, your blood cholesterol will be about the same.
(This is why low-fat diets have been notoriously unsuccessful at controlling cholesterol - hence the incredible surge in the use of cholesterol-lowering drugs over the past 20 years.) This is also the reason why you are supposed to fast before a blood cholesterol test. Any temporary spike that may be caused by eating a meal containing fat will then have subsided, and you'll get a picture of your normal blood cholesterol levels - outside of the influence of any recent dietary fat consumption.
Okay but wait a minute.... If cholesterol is so bad, then why is your body producing so much of it??
Ahh - that's a great question - so glad you asked!
The truth is....cholesterol isn't bad per se.... In fact, it's actually an essential part of a healthy body. Cholesterol makes up a large part of the brain, as well as much of the cell walls throughout your entire body, and also is required for the production of many necessary hormones.
But more importantly, at least when it comes to the blood cholesterol discussion, cholesterol acts as an antioxidant within the blood, fighting inflammation caused by free radicals, and it is also used as intravenous "spackle" one could say. That is, the body uses it to patch damaged arteries caused by inflammation and inflammatory substances.
The truth is, many people with heart disease, clogged arteries, and other inflammatory diseases DO have high blood cholesterol! But blaming the cholesterol for their disease is like blaming infection on high levels of antibodies. Or, as one of my favorite analogies goes, it's like blaming firefighters for starting fires, just because you see them wherever there's a fire!
Just like the firefighters, in fact, the cholesterol is actually there to help solve the problem.
When there are high levels of undesirable substances in the blood (caused by the dietary intake of damaged fats (i.e. processed vegetable oils), highly processed “junk” foods, and large quantities of sugars), cholesterol levels rise in order to combat these substances. If your body allowed cholesterol to fall in the presence of these unhealthy substances, your risk for heart disease would actually increase, and your body doesn't want that to happen.
So, the answer to decreasing blood cholesterol levels is not avoiding eggs, and not necessarily decreasing dietary cholesterol intake, but rather improving your diet overall by eating healthier in general (healthy, quality, organic proteins, lots of fresh vegetables, naturally fermented foods, etc.) and avoiding the other harmful types of foods mentioned - such as processed oils, simple carbs, sugars, and other highly processed foods.
Combine this with regular physical activity and both you and your cholesterol levels will be in even better shape.
So if you want to eat healthier this year, welcome yummy eggs back into your diet! Eat fresh, whole eggs from chickens raised on pasture, eating bugs and grass and all the things they're naturally suppose to eat, and you'll get even more heart-healthy fats, Omega-3 fatty acids, and antioxidant vitamins. Plus they taste 10 times as amazing!
To your health - this year and beyond,
Rose.
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