The Eggisode. Eggs - a humble yet controversial food staple, often dubbed as nature's multivitamin. We're cracking open the truth about this protein-packed, vitamin-rich food item that's been a part of human diet for thousands of years.
Keto Dude says to eat 6 a day with bacon and half a pound of cheese. Arnold ate 10-15 a day. But some health professionals consider that crazy.
Contradicting research and a hot debate surrounding eggs have left us all scrambling for concrete answers. We'll be sifting through the historical controversy, delving into the nutrition science, and seeking answers.
Find episode links, notes and artwork at:
https://blog.dirobi.com
This show is for informational purposes only.
None of the information in this podcast should be construed as dispensing medical advice.
These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.
The Eggisode. Eggs - a humble yet controversial food staple, often dubbed as nature's multivitamin. We're cracking open the truth about this protein-packed, vitamin-rich food item that's been a part of human diet for thousands of years.
Keto Dude says to eat 6 a day with bacon and half a pound of cheese. Arnold ate 10-15 a day. But some health professionals consider that crazy.
Contradicting research and a hot debate surrounding eggs have left us all scrambling for concrete answers. We'll be sifting through the historical controversy, delving into the nutrition science, and seeking answers.
Find episode links, notes and artwork at:
https://blog.dirobi.com
This show is for informational purposes only.
None of the information in this podcast should be construed as dispensing medical advice.
These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.
Hello and welcome to the DiRobid Health Show. I'm excited to do this episode and mostly it was out of personal interest, because I'm just fascinated with conflicting and confusing health stories, and the story of eggs over my lifetime is one of those. Eggs have long been a staple in human diets thousands of years as long as there's been humans, as far as we know they have eaten eggs. They have high protein content, they're versatile, they're affordable, they're an attractive food source, or have been. However, the nutritional validity of eggs has been the subject of ongoing debate and conflicting research from very large scientific organizations, which creates an intriguing story, and I wanted to get to the bottom of it. Keto Dude says I eat six eggs, four pieces of bacon and a half a pound of cheese for breakfast and I lost 40 pounds, so you should do the same.
Speaker 1:The American Heart Association warns that a single egg contains 186 milligrams of cholesterol, so you shouldn't have more than one a day. And only that, because it has other healthy components. But that 186 milligrams of cholesterol has caused heartburn maybe literally for people for quite a long time. So should you or should you not eat eggs? If so, which kind? How many? What source? I have dove into this subject and I'm excited to share my research with you for what it's worth. I've actually spent quite a bit of time on this episode, so I hope it's worth a lot and you'll get something really good out of it. Now, what no one disputes is that eggs have a heck of a lot going on for them. One egg has only 78 calories, so pretty healthy as far as weight control. Six grams of protein, vitamin D, choline, which is actually very hard to get from our diet it's why we have it in Mimi's Miracle Multi, because choline is something that's not in very many foods, but eggs have it. It's also a great source of lutein and zeaxanthin Zeaxanthin she's tried to say that three times which are both fantastic for eye health, and the list goes on. That's just a short punch list of the benefits of eggs. So what exactly did you hear that? I was trying to say it properly like egg exactly, get it so funny? A historical overview Okay, the controversy surrounding eggs began in the mid-20th century, when everyone was happily eating their eggs, but researchers started investigating the relationship between dietary cholesterol and heart disease.
Speaker 1:And because eggs have a lot of cholesterol no one disputes this they became a focal part of these studies and the early research indicated that there was some Link between cardiovascular disease and eggs, and this led to a bunch of people talking about ignore eggs, don't eat eggs, eggs are the devil. Do not eat eggs. However, other people did more research and over the years, we get all this inconsistent data. Some said that eggs are just fine. Some research was specifically into people with type two diabetes in men and women, and later on some of these studies were overturned, and so, of course, for people who are diabetic, this is a very important subject, and yet the studies on diabetics were inconclusive and continued to conflict with each other. The study egg consumption in relation to cardiovascular disease and mortality.
Speaker 1:A physician's health study, noted that, while eggs are important sources of cholesterol and other nutrients, limited and inconsistent data were available on the effective egg consumption on health. To further tarnish the studies here, one very long-term large study done in China showed that eggs were just fine for people, and they didn't find any problems in people eating one egg a day in China. However, the Chinese diet was very different than the American diet, and so that study didn't well overlay onto what Americans were eating and whether they would be more adversely affected by one egg per day than the Chinese population that was studied. However, over time, the emergence of new studies start to suggest over and over that dietary cholesterol does not significantly impact blood cholesterol levels or heart disease risk for most people. And this is corollary to another massive health issue, and that is the great statin scam. If you're unfamiliar with that, it's well worth looking into. And the billions of dollars spent on statin drugs. It was probably bad for people's health and wasted their money and made drug companies very, very wealthy. However, that's a different episode for a different day, but corollary to this entire discussion. And so the list goes on.
Speaker 1:The studies go on, and some show that eggs are the incredible edible egg, as we often saw in the advertisements, and others continue to say they are the devil. Despite the conflicting evidence, though, here's what everyone can agree on Eggs are a nutrient dense food. They're an excellent source of high quality protein and contain essential vitamins and minerals, including vitamin B12, vitamin D, iodine and selenium and, by the way, in my biohacking testing, I'm often low on selenium, and so good sources of selenium are very important to me A dish, and probably to many others. Additionally, eggs are one of the few natural sources of choline, as I mentioned before. So recent research suggests that eggs can be part of a healthy diet, and even the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found no significant link between egg consumption and heart disease. And the American Heart Association, as mentioned before, said they don't see any problem with people having one egg a day or two egg whites.
Speaker 1:But then we have the Arnold. The one man study, who ate 10 to 15 eggs every single day, was the alpha male of his generation, sporting what some people claimed was the perfect body 10 to 15 eggs every single day and he's still going strong, as we know, seeth the Arnold. I ate 10 to 15 eggs a day and had my 250 grams of protein a day because I weighed 250 pounds and, as you may know, people who are athletes are generally recommended to have at least one gram of protein per pound of body weight. If you're a non-athlete, having at least half of that is still probably a minimal goal that you should achieve. So if you weigh 150 pounds, you really should be getting 75 grams of protein per day. And at six grams per egg, having a couple in the morning is a good start for many, many people. But hold your horses here Before we dive into that, let's talk about what now. What does all this conflicting research mean? Do we have one a day? Do we act like Arnold and have 10 to 15 a day? Do we be keto dude?
Speaker 1:Well, it is clear that eggs do contain cholesterol, but that doesn't mean they raise cholesterol in humans, but they can. This is where it gets muddy. Not everything that contains a thing has that effect in your body. I don't know if I said that very well, but let me give you an example. Lemons are acidic, but if you eat a lemon, it doesn't make your body acidic. As a matter of fact, it does the exact opposite. It is an alkalizing food. Isn't that fascinating? And so cholesterol, though, is not so cut and dried. This is where knowing yourself and having a little blood work done is probably a great idea. It's probably wise to know what your cholesterol is. If you haven't had your yearly physical, it's free. Go ahead and get your yearly physical and find out what your cholesterol is, and talk to your health expert, your doctor, about this.
Speaker 1:The American Heart Association says, in general, people at risk for heart disease, who have diabetes or who have had a heart attack, should pay close attention to the amount of cholesterol in their diet. So, again, it depends. Is keto dude wrong? No, not really. Not for him or her, or the millions of people who do keto and actually have improved their health. However, is the keto diet for everybody? No, of course not, and some of the people that live the longest on this earth have never eaten an egg, While others, who live long and prosper and are very strong and healthy, eat a lot of eggs. But again, it comes down to what's best for you, so a little experimentation is probably in order.
Speaker 1:Now, what do the hens think about all this? Let's talk about them for a minute. They ought to have a say. They're the ones laying these eggs, and I am concerned about the ethical treatment of animals, and so I am no fan of the factory egg plants with millions of chickens in massive buildings that never see the light of day, often cramped in small cages, walking around in their own filth. That is not an over exaggeration of the way most eggs are made, not cool. I again, I'm a fan of animal welfare, as well as the quality of the eggs I eat, which is another worthy consideration, and those things go hand in hand, those soft shell things that break before you can even smash them against the pan that have the dingy, light yellow oaks that are made in those big factory places are junk and the animals are treated inhumanely to create those junky eggs. So let's go through some labels for a minute. Of course, we want to be label readers here. So in the United States, as I mentioned, most eggs come from big factories. There are laws governing the production of eggs, of course, and there are certain marketing lingo slapped on the egg cartons.
Speaker 1:And what do they mean? First of all, cage free does not mean cruelty free. Let's be clear about this. Cage free can still be an, a hen raised in a massive building, never seeing the light of day, wallowing in unnatural conditions. Vegetarian fed this is one of my favorites. Here's a question for you, dear listener Are chickens vegetarians? This blows me away. It blows me away. How many eggs in a big box store say vegetarian fed, like it's a good thing? Because you know, chickens are not vegetarians In nature. They're omnivores and if you just go to any farm and watch them, you will see that they peck and hunt for grubs, bugs and tiny animals. That's what they really want. And they do eat some plants, yes, but they don't thrive on a vegetarian diet, so pretty bogus.
Speaker 1:In my opinion, free range is a step in the right direction. These chickens may still be raised in a massive building. However, they have some access to the outdoors and are treated better than the pure factory raised chickens. Organic is worth looking for. This actually means something in the United States. The USDA requires hens be free range if you want to put the label organic on them. These hens get regular access to the outdoors and are kept in better conditions than most. No hormones is another funny one. It's meaningless. No egg laying chickens in the US ever receive hormones anyway, so it's just marketing gibberish.
Speaker 1:Pasture raised is a worthy label and well worth paying the extra for, and if it's available to you, of course. Buying locally raised hens, hens eggs from a farmer near you is the ideal, and you might surprise yourself if you Google free range eggs near me or fresh farm eggs near me. You may well be surprised, even if you're in a big city, that there are really good quality eggs that are cruelty free and available near you and you're supporting local farmers, something I am a huge fan of and try my best to do in all of my food decisions. In my opinion, the true price of eggs is the price they cost from a local farmer. Currently, as I record this, those eggs are about $5 to $6 a dozen and some people say, oh, that's expensive. No, no, dear listener, that is the normal price. Anything else is subsidized through the unhealthy treatment of the chickens and possibly even through true subsidization financially of the government to these big factory farms, and so that's a fake price and we ought to think of it that way. At $5 a dozen, that's 12 eggs. That's not a bad price if you think about it, if you think about the amount of food that you get in a dozen eggs. If you're doing the one a day thing, that's two weeks worth of eggs for five bucks. That's $2.50 a week, and that is how I would encourage you to think about it. Do not compare a very high quality, cruelty free egg to a piece of crap egg in your big box store. It's an unfair comparison, it's unfair on you, it's unfair on the chickens and it's supporting an industry that is supporting cruelty to animals, in my opinion, and it's not giving you the best quality product. So I hope you've enjoyed this episode. I enjoyed prepping it and doing it.
Speaker 1:I think if you have eggs in your diet, you're probably doing okay. Again, know what your cholesterol levels are. Again, the science is murky on this. For some people it does raise their cholesterol when they eat a lot of eggs. For others it does not, and so it's something that you ought to do some research on. For me, I've always dealt with high cholesterol. I am careful about my egg consumption. At the same time, I do not eliminate them. I try to have a lot of oats in my diet, because that actually is a anti cholesterol food. I also take our pounds and inches drops in our Mimi's Miracle Multi, which are also working directly to keep my naturally genetically high cholesterol down, as I recommend that you do as well, and eating healthy eggs along with the supplements at dirobycom is probably a good idea. Just work with your own health provider, know your own situation and determine how many make sense for you by the best quality that you can, and I think that eggs will help you on your nutritional journey. This is Dave Sherwin, wishing you health and success.