Myths Around Eggs That Just Need To Stop
Eggs are an inexpensive source of protein and chock-full of nutrients. Go to any restaurant in Houston, TX, and you’ll find a variety of egg dishes on the menu. They’re nutrient-dense and low-calorie. You can eat them at every meal. Unfortunately, eggs suffer from bad PR and inaccurate science. There are myths about the dangers of eating too many eggs and how they negatively affect your health. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Are eggs bad for your cholesterol?
Eggs are high in cholesterol, but that doesn’t affect the cholesterol levels nearly as much as saturated and trans fats, often found in snack foods and sweets. One reason for the link to high cholesterol may be the foods usually eaten with eggs, such as sausage, ham, or bacon, and how you cook eggs. One factor often overlooked about low cholesterol diets is that the body manufactures it. If you cut cholesterol from food, your body makes more.
Studies about the effects of eggs often have polar conclusions.
Early studies linked egg consumption with an increased risk of diabetes. New studies show that’s not true. Eating up to 12 eggs a week had no effect. One Chinese study found eating one egg a day reduced the risk of heart attack and stroke. One problem with the study is that the diet was a traditional Chinese diet, not a Western diet. Other studies found that if cholesterol increased from eating eggs, the increase was good cholesterol that improved health. Eggs contain omega-3 fatty acids that decrease the risk of heart disease and many antioxidants that fight inflammation.
Eating raw eggs helps you build muscle faster than eating cooked eggs.
Raw eggs have 36% more vitamin D, 33% more DHA, 20% more zinc, 20% more biotin, and 23% more choline, but it has a downside. Raw eggs contain avidin that blocks the absorption of biotin. The biotin in raw eggs isn’t as bioavailable as in cooked eggs, even though there’s more. It’s also harder to absorb the protein in raw eggs since cooking breaks down the protein and makes it more available. The protein in cooked eggs is 91% bioavailability. In raw eggs, it’s only 50%. You also face the risk of bacterial infection from salmonella.
People often eat only egg whites, believing the yolks are fattening. The yolks contain fat that extends satiety when you eat them, so you stay full longer.
There are many labels for eggs. Caged, cage-free, free-range, and pastured are four types. Cage-free chickens still live inside. Free-range have a small area outside to use. Pastured hens wander and eat bugs and plants. They are more nutritious than the other eggs.
Another myth is that all eggs require refrigeration. Eggs have a natural protective coating. Washing the eggs and preparing them for sale removes the coating. Only then do you have to refrigerate them.
Even though eggs are far healthier and contain less risk than most people believe, if your healthcare professional suggests you don’t eat eggs, discuss it with your healthcare professional and follow their suggestions.
Is Your BMI Really A Good Measure Of Your Health?
What is BMI? BMI stands for body mass index and is a ratio of height to weight based on sex and sometimes age. It’s just one quick measure of your overall health. BMI is a chart with your height at the side, weight in the middle, and the corresponding BMI at the top of the chart. The BMI formula is (weight in pounds x 703) / (height in inches x height in inches). Putting the information on a chart cuts through calculation time and makes it easy for doctors to take a quick assessment. It’s not a stand-alone test and requires other information.
The amount of muscle you have makes a difference.
If a patient is a bodybuilder or other muscular person, the doctor might make a rash assessment of obesity before seeing the patient. That’s because muscle tissue weighs more per cubic inch than fat tissue. If two people were the same height and weight, but one was muscular and the other wasn’t, the muscular person would look thinner. The muscular person would probably be healthier than the one who wasn’t. The healthcare professional would know the difference when they saw them. Insurance companies often require a photograph of a person with a high BMI due to muscle tissue to avoid paying more for life insurance. A large body frame, dense bones, pregnancy, and age can skew BMI.
There are better ways to identify health risks than BMI.
A waist measurement is a better indication of overall health. For men, a waist larger than 40.2 inches has a greater chance of diabetes. The measurement for women indicating the same is 34.6 inches. That’s because fat around the waist is visceral fat. It’s the most dangerous type and the most difficult to lose. It crowds the organs and causes inflammation.
A high BMI leads the doctor to explore health issues by taking other tests.
A high BMI may be the reason for breathing problems or sleep apnea, which can lead to COPD, heart disease, and diabetes. It can indicate a risk for arthritis, liver disease, some types of cancer, high cholesterol, and high blood pressure, too. It’s not a good indicator of the health of children or seniors. Doctors use it as a place to start and other factors, like personal observation.
One study showed that BMI wasn’t a good indicator of cardiac health. It didn’t indicate whether the patient would have a healthy cardiometabolic profile containing blood sugar, blood pressure, and cholesterol levels.
A better indicator of health is the RFM—relative fat mass index. It uses the formula for men of 64-(20 x height/waist circumference) and women 76-(20 x height/waist circumference).
Better indicators of body density are MRI scans and underwater weighing. The problem is that they are too costly for widespread use.
The range for normal is between 18 and 24. For overweight individuals, the BMI number range is from 25 to 29. The range between 30 and 39 is obese and 40 and higher is extremely obese.