You cannot outtrain a bad diet! #momstein #bbcreatorsclub
The egg yolk boycott
When cholesterol was shunned worldwide, what soon followed was the boycott of egg yolk. Health nuts from around the world united and got behind the private protest against the deadly food that was the egg yolk. My husband was one of those health nuts and had an anti-yolk stance when I married him. I couldn’t revert him back to the whole-egg faith but I didn’t allow the ridiculousness of eating only egg whites in my house.
You have by now guessed that I will be concluding that eating only egg whites is just dumb. It is one of the dumbest things to do. The egg yolk is the life bearing part of an egg. The egg white or albumin supports the egg yolk. The cute yellow fluffy chick was once the yolk. And she isn’t pure cholesterol. The egg yolk is the main powerhouse of nutrients in the egg. Some of the nutrients you are throwing away when gorging on egg whites:
1.; ; ; ;Vitamin D: one of the few food sources of vitamin D. Our body gets most of its Vitamin D supply from the sun. And if you are an Indian, the sun is your enemy and you will avoid the tanning sunlight as much as you can! You can get your vitamin D from egg yolk without the tan!
2.; ; ; ;Vitamin B complex and Vitamin K: These guys are running the machinery of optimum energy usage in your body, great skin and hair, healthy gut and blood. If you shy away from fruits and vegetables, then egg yolk can make up for it.
3.; ; ; ;Vitamin A: Great for eyesight.
4.; ; ; ;Choline: A superb source of choline. This nutrient is necessary for nerves and brain especially among little kids. Many malt-based health drinks boast of being choline enriched and how you are helping your child become brainier by giving him that artificial drink. Discard that drink and reach out for the egg yolk.
5.; ; ; ;Iron and Folate: Important for blood cell production in the body. Egg is a rich source of protein so your blood cell production gets the complete raw material from eggs.
The egg yolk has a great protein content as well as fatty acid profile. It is a great source of omega 3 fatty acids (more so if the hen is reared on flaxseed feed).
The big secret about cholesterol which most websites, books and nutrition “experts” fail to inform you about is that whether you eat cholesterol or not, the liver will produce cholesterol in the body. If the supply from food sources is more, the liver will compensate by reducing its own production. So why exactly is the liver adamant on pumping cholesterol into your body? Because it is one of the most important molecules in your body. It is the molecule which makes the cell membrane of each and every cell in your body.
Infact one of the most disturbing side effects of cholesterol lowering drugs was memory loss in people as young as 35 years. About a quarter of your body’s cholesterol is found in your brain. The complex branching brain cells that help you think and remember stuff are tampered with when you pop a cholesterol lowering drug. Even hormones in your body such as estrogen- the feminine hormone, testosterone- the masculine hormone, progesterone- the pregnancy hormone and glucocorticoids- the stress hormones, all are derived from cholesterol.
Cholesterol is the building block of the body. It is to the body what the brick is to a building. Every cell membrane is made of cholesterol. Cholesterol is produced by the liver regardless of what you eat, and the body knows best how much to manufacture. Reducing cholesterol artificially is like throwing a spanner in the spokes of the cholesterol manufacturing wheel of the liver. It’s a single track minded approach as though the body is a heart and nothing else (as cardiologists seem to view it).
Now if you ask me for a scientific guideline for the number of eggs you can consume in a day or a week then the message I am trying to convey is just not hitting the mark. What you need to understand is that there is no lucky bingo number of eggs to be eaten to be in the prime of health. Swerving and switching lanes of which cuisine to follow and which oil to drizzle on your cherry tomatoes is not going to ensure a healthy heart. Swapping oils for fancy gourmet imports is not the mantra either. Infact the west went berserk with the fish oil craze. The Inuits of Greenland (who are popularly called eskimos) consume a diet laden with fat. Yet they had a real low rate of suffering heart attacks. The link between fat consumption and heart attacks was in a manner openly challenged by these people’s diet. On scientific probing it was found that fish was an amazing source of fat and the high omega 3 content in fish and fish oil was protective to the heart. You can imagine what happened next. The world scurried to load their bodies with fish oil capsules. And just like that the fish supply of the world’s oceans was not enough for the voracious appetite of the dieters. It is estimated that by the year 2048 the world’s sea water fish supply will be depleted because of this unbalanced dietary craze.
The dieting duffery needs to end. Don’t deem everything you ate as a kid, which was freshly cooked and served with love, as inferior to what the white man or that skinny bitch eats. Eat in moderation whatever your culture allows. Even non-vegetarian foods if you wish. Going vegan, going low fat, going high fat, going yolk free or going gluten free solves nothing. It is just adding to your woes by stressing your brain with conflicting information and your body with fluctuating diets. If you are an Indian, use your coconut oil, your sarson ka tel or whatever you have been used to and cook your food. Don’t skimp on oil but also don’t binge on oily foods. Tread the middle path. Don’t swear off carbs and neither splurge on proteins in the name of muscle building. Any excess protein, fat or carbohydrate will find its way into your body fat reserves. Too much protein will become fat and so will too much fat and carbohydrate. The Eskimos got away with eating fatty fish because they were built for that. Their genes allowed them to process that food better and they needed that fat supply to live in the harsh climate of the north pole. If you want to eat like an Eskimo, then go live like an Eskimo. Eat what you like but practice portion control. Even dessert is fine if you so wish. And if there is anything you need to swear off to be healthy, it is prepackaged food which are often laden with trans fats. And that is the stuff that is clogging arteries and attacking hearts. Not cholesterol. Not fat. Not carbs. Not gluten.
So in short, you can eat the egg and have the yolk too.