Kind of loving this article maybe more than I should. Whenever we had lectures on nutrition and health management in med school, it was always a little mirky because, in the past, the medical profession has been pretty poor at pinpointing exactly what foods help you maintain/improve health (yeah, turns out that mimicking the healthy Asian population by eating low-fat, high-carb isn’t the best diet).
And of course, there are so many measurements beyond pounds, waistlines, and cholesterol–it’s tough to get a good assessment of health. John and I are currently on week three of the Paleo Challenge at our crossfit box (made considerably more easy by the fact that I can indulge with brownies and nutella). I like the lifestyle, but the one thing I can’t get behind is the encouragement that we get pre- and post-challenge blood work, which includes such measurements as c-reactive protein, a non-specific measure of inflammation. Any change made by the challenge seems arbitrary, but what do I know, right?
This short piece succinctly summarizes with a pop culture twist a lot of what I’ve learned. My favorite debunked myth is rightfully number 1; makes me feel better about consuming 3-4 eggs daily and feeding my daughter an over-easy (which she promptly destroys/devours) every morning:
kathleen and isaac’s chickens’ eggs
1. Eggs Are Bad For Your Health
Eggs are so incredibly nutritious that they’re often called “nature’s multivitamin.”
The nutrients in them are enough to turn a single cell into an entire baby chicken.
However, eggs have been demonized in the past because they contain a large amount of cholesterol, which was believed to increase the risk of heart disease.
But the truth is that despite being high in cholesterol, eggs don’t really raise the bad cholesterol in the blood. In fact, eggs primarily raise the “good” cholesterol (1, 2, 3, 4).
Despite all the warnings about eggs in the past few decades, studies show that they are NOT associated with heart disease (5, 6, 7).
If anything, eggs are pretty much a perfect food for humans. They’re loaded with protein, healthy fats, vitamins, minerals and unique antioxidants that protect the eyes (8, 9).
They are also an excellent source of Choline, a nutrient that is very important for the health of the brain and about 90% of people aren’t getting enough of (10, 11).
Despite being a “high fat” food, eating eggs for breakfast is proven to cause significant weight loss compared to a breakfast of bagels (12, 13).
Bottom Line: Eggs are among the most nutritious foods on the planet and do not raise your risk of heart disease. Eggs for breakfast can help you lose weight.
anna in med school 
And for an interesting look at eggs from another point of view (non dietary), read Just a Couple of Chickens. It will make you laugh and muse in wonder, a true narrative.
Ooo, I will! Thank you!! xoxo, and happy belated!
I sure do love your blogs. But just a couple notes on this one.
Paleo — I have some friends who are over the top on this. Young, very athletic ( natl team soccer, etc) clients. Having just finished my bi-annual trip to the Vesere and all the Magdalenean sites, it seems to me that any diet that does not include beans or lentils, is incomplete.
As an aside, I have found that root vegetables were not a part of early British diet until about 1300 AD. I find that statement so counterintuitive that it has just got to be wrong, or at least limited to certain types of root vegetables. It means that both the Celtic and the Anglo migrations into Britain did not bring vegetables, just wheat, barley and rye. Strange.
Eggs are included in the South Beach diet, which I use as a broad guide.
Love
Dad
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Thanks so much for the comments. I definitely miss lentils and beans, but not as much as I missed fruit on South Beach. I think SB is certainly a pretty good guide, and it overlaps a bunch with Paleo 🙂
THIS MAKES ME FEEL SO MUCH BETTER. I knew that eggs “weren’t so bad” although I grew up hearing that you should be careful eating too many eggs. And for the past few weeks, I’ve been getting up early to make sunny side up eggs for the boyfriend and I. Only recently did I start to wonder if I was slowly raising our cholesterol. So thank you!! Now I can continue to make breakfast 🙂
Awww, yes!! Enjoy your eggs!! My cholesterol has literally never been lower (and my HDL is up!), and I easily eat three eggs daily. The metabolism is complicated, but eggs are way healthy!! Glad you found a morning routine that keeps you and the BF happy and satisfied 🙂
“mimicking the healthy Asian population by eating low-fat, high-carb isn’t the best diet”
….. Uh-oh. It’s been my diet since day 0…!
hahahaha, I’m sure you’re fine! But you know us Americans are so poor at moderation, that we can turn diets that work well for others and make them ineffective. Please let me know if my joke was in any way offensive!
I was pretty pleased to find this web site. I
want to to thank you for ones time for this particularly wonderful read!!
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