Get cracking and discover the benefits of this delicious staple food
Can eating eggs help you lose weight? Tucking in to a boiled egg or an omelette for your breakfast every day may help you to lose those unwanted kilos. A US study tested women who were given either an egg or a bagel for breakfast (both groups of women had the same calories) and found those who ate eggs reported feeling fuller and were less likely to snack on fatty foods later in the day.
Large eggs contain around 75 calories and about 5g of fat. The way you cook them makes a big difference to how good they are for you – boiled or poached eggs are better than fried ones. Remember all the health warnings years ago about how bad eggs were for you?
Because they’re high in dietary cholesterol, eating more than one a day was thought to raise blood cholesterol levels and contribute to heart disease. But now health professionals are telling us that eating eggs does most of us more good than harm – as long as you eat a healthy, balanced diet and don’t have to watch what you eat because of cholesterol problems.
Here are a few reason why eggs should be included in your diet:
Eggs are a great source of protein. In fact, they contain the highest-quality food protein available. It’s said they provide ideal nutrition for humans that is second only to breast milk, thanks to the essential amino acids they contain.
Eggs contain 13 vitamins. An egg yolk is one of the few foods that contains vitamin D, which our bodies can only make when we get enough sunshine. Vitamin D is important for general health as well as strengthening bones. It helps the immune system to fight off infections and is even thought to protect against some cancers and autoimmune diseases. All of the vitamin A, D and E found in eggs is in the yolk. (Note: Eggs don’t contain vitamin C.)
Eggs are a good source of minerals. They contain phosphorous, manganese, iron, iodine, copper, calcium and zinc. (Zinc is found in the yolk only.)
Eggs can help your eyesight. The yolk contains a nutrient called lutein that is particularly good for the eyes. It helps to protect eyes against macular degeneration (a deterioration of the eye linked to age) and cataracts.
Eggs could also be good for your memory. They’re a source of an essential nutrient called choline. This plays an important part in helping your brain to develop and helps your memory work more efficiently.
About eggs and cholesterol Eggs are a source of cholesterol (known as dietary cholesterol when it’s found in food). When we became aware a generation ago of how certain types of cholesterol in our blood could cause serious health problems by blocking arteries, foods like eggs got a bad rap.
It was thought they increased our levels of blood cholesterol and this was worrying because having high cholesterol increases your risk of heart disease. However, scientists now know that eating dietary cholesterol does not automatically raise the levels of cholesterol in your blood – instead there are quite a few factors involved, including the amount of saturated fat you consume.
Studies show that many people whose diets are low in saturated fats can eat one or two eggs a day without their blood cholesterol levels rising. In fact, the levels can even decrease – a UK trial found that people who ate two eggs a day as part of a reduced-calorie diet recommended by the British Heart Foundation noticed a fall in their blood cholesterol levels.
If you need to lower the level of cholesterol in your blood, cut the amount of saturated fats you eat, ie meat and dairy products, as well as deep-fried food and baked goods like pies and pastries. A large egg contains around 213mg of cholesterol. Doctors say, if you’re healthy, your diet can include a daily intake of up to 300mg of cholesterol.
However, if you have heart disease, diabetes or high levels of “bad” LDL cholesterol, you should try to eat less than 200mg of dietary cholesterol a day. In effect, this means if you have a small egg for breakfast, you should steer clear of other cholesterol-containing foods such as liver, kidney and prawns, as well as food high in saturated fats, for the rest of that day.
Some people, known as “hyper responders”, are particularly sensitive to dietary cholesterol. If you’ve been diagnosed with this problem, talk to your doctor about your diet.
Too much of a good thing? You may have seen the item in Star Weekly about the husband of TV chef Nigella Lawson, who has been on a diet that involved eating only eggs. Advertising guru Charles Saatchi copped lots of flak in the UK for allegedly eating nine eggs a day – three each for breakfast, lunch and dinner – for nine months.
He lost around 27kg but nutritionists criticised his regime, saying that, while eggs are good for you when they’re part of a balanced diet, Charles was missing out on important vitamins and minerals, as well as fibre and carbohydrates, by eating so many eggs.
Any diet that encourages you to eat only one type of food and skip others that are important for your health may be dangerous, even if it does initially help you to lose weight. So don’t try this at home!
Did you know… ? Some studies suggest teenage girls who regularly eat eggs are less likely to develop breast cancer later in life.
