Is It The Cholesterol In Eggs That’s Freaking You Out?

We all have cholesterol in our bodies. It’s used to form cell membranes, some hormones, and for other functions.

You get cholesterol in two ways. Your body — mainly your liver — usually makes about 1,000 milligrams a day. You also get it from eating foods that contain cholesterol. Animal foods — especially egg yolks, meat, poultry, shellfish, and whole and reduced fat dairy products — contain it. Plant foods don’t.

Your body can usually make all the cholesterol it needs so it’s not necessary to eat it. Still, the average American man consumes about 337 milligrams of cholesterol daily; the average woman, 217 milligrams. The American Heart Association recommends limiting your average daily cholesterol intake to less than 300 milligrams; less than 200 milligrams if you have heart disease.

Eggs Used To Be Cholesterol No-Nos

We used to be told not to eat eggs, certainly not the yolks, because of what they would do to our cholesterol levels. Egg yolks do contain a lot of cholesterol and may have a weak effect on blood cholesterol levels, but they also contain nutrients like protein, vitamins B12 and D, riboflavin, and folate that might help to lower the risk for heart disease.

There is solid research that shows that for most people the  cholesterol in food has a much smaller effect on the total cholesterol and harmful LDL cholesterol in the blood than the mix of fats in the diet does.

Recent research shows that eating moderate numbers of eggs — up to one a day—doesn’t increase the risk of heart disease risk in healthy people and can be part of a healthy diet. It’s recommended that people with diabetes and heart disease limit eggs to no more than three yolks a week.

Can You Eat Eggs Every Day?

The research isn’t suggesting three-egg omelettes as daily fare —  especially if they’re loaded with cheese, bacon, and sausage. Your body handles scrambled eggs, salsa, and a whole wheat English muffin a lot differently than scrambled eggs with cheese, sausage or bacon, home fries, and white toast with butter. You might consider choosing eggs with high omega-3 content from free range organically raised chickens and steering clear of adding saturated fat (most notably, butter) when they’re cooked. If you have a three egg omelette one day, skip eggs for the next day or so.

Egg Nutrition

1 large egg:  71 calories, 5g total fat (2g saturated), 211mg cholesterol, 70mg sodium, 0g carbohydrate, 6g protein

1 (large) egg yolk:  54 calories, 5g total fat (2g saturated), 210mg cholesterol, 8mg sodium, 1g carbohydrate, 3g protein

1 (large) egg white:  16 calories, 0g fat, 0g cholesterol, 55mg sodium, 0g carbohydrate, 4g protein

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A Giant Heavy Hard-Shelled Egg

An ostrich, native to South Africa, is flightless, fast-running, and the world’s largest living bird.  An ostrich egg is the largest egg produced by a living creature (a dinosaur egg in the American Museum of Natural History is about the size of basketball), weighing in at around 3.3 pounds (about 20 times the weight of a chicken egg).  Its yolk is the largest single cell that currently exists.

The egg is glossy and cream colored, with a thick hard pitted shell (like a golf ball) — hard enough for a 300 pound bird to sit on it.  It is incubated by females during the day and by males at night.  One egg is equivalent to about 18 to 24 chicken eggs — and yes, you can make a gigantic ostrich egg omelet (after using a drill to get through the hard shell). Females lay their fertilized eggs in a single communal nest that has been scraped in the ground by a male. The dominant female is the first to lay her eggs and she discards extra eggs from weaker females, leaving about 20 in the nest.

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Cholesterol. We all have it in our bodies. It’s used to form cell membranes, some hormones, and for other functions. But, too high a level in your blood can be a major risk factor for coronary heart disease.

You get cholesterol in two ways. Your body (mainly your liver) usually makes about 1,000 milligrams a day. You also get it by eating certain foods that contain cholesterol. Animal foods — especially egg yolks, meat, poultry, shellfish, and whole and reduced fat dairy products — contain it. Plant foods don’t.

Your body can usually make all the cholesterol it needs so it’s not necessary to eat it (the liver helps remove some of the excess). Still, the average American man consumes about 337 milligrams of cholesterol daily; the average woman, 217 milligrams.

The American Heart Association recommends limiting your average daily cholesterol intake to less than 300 milligrams; less than 200 milligrams If you have heart disease.

Eggs Used To Be Cholesterol No-Nos

New nutrition data from the USDA’s research service shows that eggs are lower in cholesterol than when they were last analyzed in 2002. The average amount of cholesterol in one large egg is 185 mg, or 14 % less. Vitamin D levels have increased 64% with a large egg containing 41 International Units (IU). Some things have stayed the same:  each large egg is 70 calories and has 6 grams of protein, or 12% of the Recommended Daily Value (RDA).

You can keep within the cholesterol guidelines even eating an egg a day, especially if you choose other low cholesterol foods. The 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans suggest that eating one whole egg per day does not result in increased blood cholesterol levels but they, too, recommend consuming, on average, less than 300 mg of cholesterol per day.

Why The Change In The Incredible Edible Egg?

Researchers are speculating that it is probably because of changes in the hens’ feed. Hens are now being fed a high quality, nutritionally balanced diet of mostly corn, soybean meal, vitamins and minerals. Research is being done to check this out.

You should start seeing revised nutrition information on egg cartons soon.

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It’s time to do some holiday baking. One essential ingredient of most baked goods is:  eggs.  Needless to say, the fragile little power packages enclosed by brown, white, and sometimes blue shells are key players for breakfast, lunch, or dinner, too.

When you shop for eggs there are a slew of different egg cartons – most of which sport all kinds of claims about nutrients and the personal space of the hens plastered front and center.

The dilemma: how to choose.  I would love my eggs to come from happy chickens that run around in lots of space  (like my Grandmother’s chicken coop that came with individual wooden nests for each chicken and a large outdoor pen).  I don’t know how to tell if hens are happy since they don’t smile, but I guess if they are sheltered, fed, have space to roam and lay lots of eggs they might qualify.

Egg Nutrition

One large egg has 72 calories, 16 in the white, 54 in the yolk.  Each has 6.3 grams of protein, 3.6 in the white, 2.7 in the yolk.  There are 5 grams of fat, 4.5 of which are in the yolk.  1.6 grams is saturated fat – all of which is in the yolk.  There are 212 mg of cholesterol, 210 of which are in the yolk.  (There’s the answer to egg white omelettes). There are a whole bunch of vitamins and minerals in these little powerhouses, a lot of which  — but not all — reside in the yolk.

The Claims On The Carton

The following information is from a Nutrition Action Healthletter Safe-Food Report.

Verified Or Certified Claims You Can Trust:

• USDA Organic means that the hens have to be uncaged inside barns or warehouses and have to have an unspecified amount of outdoor access.  They have to be fed a vegetarian organic diet free of antibiotics and pesticides and can’t have had any antibiotics after they were three days old.  Beak cutting (trimmed beaks prevent the chickens from harming each other) is permitted.

• American Humane Certified means that the hens can be confined in cages or they can be cage free.  Their beaks can be cut.

• Animal Welfare Approved means that the hens are raised by independent family farmers and in flocks of no more than 500 birds that spend their adult lives outside.  They aren’t fed any animal byproducts and their beaks can’t be cut.  Their eggs can be found at farmers markets and restaurants.

• Certified Humane means that the hens must be uncaged inside barns or warehouses but can also be kept indoors all the time.  Beak cutting is okay.

• United Egg Producers Certified means that the producer must meet minimum voluntary industry standards which, according to the Humane Society, “permits routine cruel and inhumane factory farm practices.”

Claims That Have Not Been Certified By An Organic Or Animal Welfare Organization (aka the companies make the claim – can you trust them???)

• Raised Without Antibiotics should mean that the hens haven’t been fed antibiotics at any time and if the hen was sick and given them, this claim cannot be used for her eggs.  FYI:  Routine use of antibiotics for hens is illegal.

• Cage Free means that the hens live outside of battery cages in warehouses or barns but they usually don’t have outdoor access.  They typically have two to three times more space than their caged brethren.

• Free Range or Free Roaming hens are cage free with some outdoor access although there are not requirements for how much or what kind of access.

• Pasture Raised or Pastured hens romp for at least some time outside foraging for bugs and vegetation.

Then There Are The Nutrient Claims

Because caged and cage free hens usually eat the same diet based on corn there’s no nutritional difference in their eggs.  However, some egg producers supplement their hens’ diet with ingredients that they claim produce an increased nutrient value in the egg (like Vitamin E).  Always check the Nutrition Facts label for specifics rather than just trusting the claim.

Then there are the Omega 3 claims.  The three kinds of Omega 3 fats are DHA, EPA, and ALA.  The first two help reduce heart attack risk, lower blood triglyceride levels, and are very important components of your brain cells and retinas.  Their most plentiful source is fatty fish like salmon.

The third kind of Omega 3, ALA, doesn’t protect your heart as much as the other two.  Most of us get ALA thorough foods made with vegetable oils.

The Hoodwink

Here’s a heads-up:  The FDA has banned omega 3 claims on eggs but egg producers still make the claims.  Read on.

An egg typically has about 25mg of DHA and 25mg of ALA.  If the carton boasts that the eggs have omega 3s but doesn’t specify how much – or – if it says that there are 50mg of omega 3s per egg, chances are it’s just an ordinary egg with the naturally occurring amount of omega 3s and a leading claim.

Some companies supplement their hens’ feed with things like algae or fish meal which can boost the DHA in each yolk to about 100mg.  Adding canola oil or flaxseed to the feed can boost ALA to around 350mg.

If the carton claim is that the eggs have 300mg or more of omega 3s most of it is probably ALA and not the more desirable DHA or EPA.

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