Don’t Throw Away Egg Yolks! Here’s Why They’re Good For You
There’s been an ongoing discussion about egg yolks: are they good for you? Are you better off without them? Is it really a risk to eat them on a regular basis or at all? Over the years, there have been many arguments on the matter, so we wanted to address the topic and find out, once and for all, if egg yolks really are unhealthy for you the way you always thought they were. So, let’s talk about it, shall we?
Famous Myth
It’s been a known fact for a long time that egg yolks are high in cholesterol, and that’s true. However, the most common misconception is that eating egg yolks will raise the cholesterol levels in your blood. We’re here to tell you that it doesn’t actually work that way. It turns out that your liver produces cholesterol in large amounts since it’s a necessary nutrient for your cells. When you eat foods that have a higher amount of cholesterol, your liver will simply produce lower amounts in response in order to keep things balanced in the body. The same goes for the other way around, if you don’t eat foods with a lot of cholesterol, your liver will produce more of it. As a result, your blood cholesterol levels don’t actually change much when you eat more cholesterol-heavy foods. In fact, cholesterol is a nutrient that isn’t bad for the body – it’s actually involved in all kinds of processes in the body, such as producing vitamin D, producing bile acids which help digest fat, and even producing steroid hormones like estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone. Finally, cholesterol is a component that can be found in every single cell of the human body, meaning that people wouldn’t be able to exist without it.
Heart Disease
There have been studies done to examine how eggs affect heart disease risk factors. The results were mostly positive or neutral. It’s been found that eating 1-2 whole eggs a day doesn’t seem to change cholesterol levels or heart risk disease factors. On top of that, consuming eggs as part of a low-carb diet has been shown to improve markers of heart disease in people with insulin resistance or type-2 diabetes. What’s more, one study followed pre-diabetics who were on a carb-restricted diet. Those who ate whole eggs had better insulin sensitivity and more improvements in heart health than those who only ate the egg whites. While LDL (the “bad” cholesterol) tends to either stay the same or slightly rise when you eat eggs, the HDL (the “good” cholesterol) normally increases. As if all that wasn’t enough, it’s been found that eating omega-3 enriched eggs might help lower triglyceride levels as well.
Nutrients
We feel the need to mention the fact that eggs are filled with great nutrients and therefore have a lot of health benefits that deserve to be spoken about. Eggs are a great source of high-quality protein as well as some other important vitamins and minerals. One large whole egg has Vitamin A, Riboflavin, Folate, Iron, Vitamin B12, and Selenium. Naturally, since eggs have so many nutrients, they are great for your health. In fact, eggs can help keep you full, promote weight loss, protect brain health, reduce the risk for eye disease, and even decrease inflammation.
