Not surprisingly, much of the hubub around eggs and their bad-cholesterol-reputation are a bit political in origin. In the late 1960's, there was a disagreement in the food science community about whether or not dietary cholesterol had a significant effect on the blood cholesterol levels. Some scientists were opposed to the very idea of it, while others believed there was a firm correlation. After years of haggling, they came to a compromise and issued the following statement: That we should not consume more than 300 milligrams of cholesterol per day. Unfortunately, there is not one bit of scientific evaluation in that number. Eggs immediately were seen as a bad food, because one egg can have more than 200 mg of cholesterol.
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| Note the noncommittal word "can." Better to eat the real thing. |
However, we know a lot more about the science of cholesterol now than we did then. What we know now is: what the body DOES with the cholesterol is much more important than the number of milligrams we consume. And it turns out, the kind of fat and cholesterol in a food have a huge affect on how the body processes them. After some scrutiny, it was discovered that the studies linking eggs to heart disease were using dehydrated eggs, which had been liquefied, pasteurized, and spray-dried, causing the cholesterol in the eggs to oxidize. Oxidized cholesterol causes artery walls to thicken, thus the connection to heart disease.
When some studies were finally done on real, whole eggs in the late '90s, the results were clear. Not only was there no evidence of a significant association between egg consumption and heart disease, but people who ate 5 or 6 eggs per week had a lower risk of heart disease than those who ate less than 1 egg per week. After all of the hype, what we discover is that eggs are good for you.
With additional research, we also understand now that not all eggs are created equal. Chickens that are exposed to pasture, where they can eat grass, insects, grubs and worms, lay the healthiest eggs. These eggs are dramatically denser than their counterparts in omega-3 fats, which prevent obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and depression.
So, which egg is best?
The egg closest to the one you can get in nature.
An egg rich with all the healthy fats will have a yolk that is a deep, vibrant orange color. In fact, the darker the yolk, the healthier the egg.
If you have access to eggs raised on a pasture, these are the best. If you live in a rural area, these are the eggs you get on a farm. If you live in an urban area, these are the eggs that you can get at a farmer's market.
If buying eggs from a farmer is not an option for you, your next best choice is the egg is labeled high in omega-3s.
The label "vegetarian fed" eggs is rather mixed news. On the plus side, you know that your chickens have not been fed other chickens or any other random industrial meat product, which surely would not be that beneficial to you. On the other hand, recall that chickens are naturally omnivores. A vegetarian chicken has not had any exposure to the outside where it could possibly eat an insect.
Eggs to avoid? Those that have been dehydrated and gone through the oxidation process. The government DOES NOT require labels to differentiate between eggs and dehydrated eggs. A dry cake mix with the ingredient "eggs," for example, absolutely is using dehydrated eggs. And those liquid egg products some folks use instead of the real thing? Those have gone through a dehydration-liquefication process as well. Any fast food joint serving eggs will be serving a processed egg product instead of actually cracking the real thing in the kitchen.
A malnourished chicken will lay an egg with a light yellow yolk. I've purchased "organic" eggs at the grocery store that look like this. And in that case, I'm the sucker. I paid more for an egg that tastes bland and offers very little nutritionally.
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