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Are egg yolks bad for you?

tastybasslines

tastybasslines

Inactive
May 9, 2010
2,216
1,384
Los Angeles, CA
#1
At Muay Thai last night, another boxer and I were talking about diet. He says he eats 5 eggs a day, yolk and all and that it's a myth that yolks are bad for you. I asked him about the cholesterol and he said that it is the "good" cholesterol, and not bad for you like the cholesterol that comes from other food sources. My father in law agrees with him.

5 yolks a day though?

So many doctor reports seem to suggest that eating so many eggs is still not very good for you. And that 2 a day exceeds the recommended intake.

I love eggs and am moving to a higher protein diet. I'm going to be taking protein powder as well, and am not looking for general diet advice.

What does TBOT think of egg yolks? Yay or nay?
 
#2
Due to my high cholesterol I stayed away from eggs [and I love eggs in any form] and limited to maybe about 2 a week. Then read an article that not only do eggs NOT raise cholesterol, they can actually lower it. So I proceeded to add 2 eggs a day and my cholesterol went down to the lowest it's ever been. Continued for another 6 months and it went even lower.
Eggs. Not only are they incredible and edible, but they also add to my healthy diet. However, we are each individuals, your mileage may vary.
 
#3
ASATMAN said:
Due to my high cholesterol I stayed away from eggs [and I love eggs in any form] and limited to maybe about 2 a week. Then read an article that not only do eggs NOT raise cholesterol, they can actually lower it. So I proceeded to add 2 eggs a day and my cholesterol went down to the lowest it's ever been. Continued for another 6 months and it went even lower.
Eggs. Not only are they incredible and edible, but they also add to my healthy diet. However, we are each individuals, your mileage may vary.
Click to expand...

What would your doctor say if you ate...6 a day?
 
#5
tastybasslines said:
What would your doctor say if you ate...6 a day?
Click to expand...
That I didn't ask. My DR and I have tested so many drug combos to find what works best for me. We've been able to get my overall cholesterol to a low of 172, down from 287. The good cholesterol down to 111, down from 215.

macaroni tony said:
I limit my egg yolk consumption, also because my cholesterol is a little on the high end. Huh. i didn't know eggs could lower cholesterol. how does that work?
Click to expand...
Beats the hell out of me. We're all individuals and as such react differently.
 
#6
The yolks contain almost all of the bad parts of an egg (namely fat). They also contain almost all the good parts of an egg. How many you eat should depend on your nutritional, weight loss, and exercise goals. I wouldn't eat 6 whole eggs a day, but it might work fine for someone who needs sustained energy and protein if they have a workout schedule that can last several hours throughout the day, have a diet designed around burning fats for energy, and aren't taking in a lot of cholesterol elsewhere. I usually just have three whites and a whole egg at a time when eating eggs for a meal.

ASATMAN said:
Due to my high cholesterol I stayed away from eggs [and I love eggs in any form] and limited to maybe about 2 a week. Then read an article that not only do eggs NOT raise cholesterol, they can actually lower it.
Click to expand...

They certainly can raise cholesterol- it depends on how many you eat on a regular basis. They contain a fairly high amount of cholesterol, so a steady diet of 6+ whole eggs a day will likely raise your levels, although probably not to any sort of level you need to be concerned about if you cholesterol intake from other foods is low. The issue with eggs is the folks who traditionally ate a lot of them also ate a lot of other foods high in bad fats and cholesterols, like bacon, cheese, non-grassfed butter and steak, etc.
 
#7
Don't believe any Government who tell you food is good or bad. when I was a kid, the TV adverts said "Go to work on an egg". A few years later, they kill you, then they're good again. They have protein, taste good and are simple to cook. Here in the UK, they've just announced that low fat margarine/nearly butter products are now worse than real butter! For people pre-disposed to heart disease, cholesterol is not good - however my Cholesterol is very high, and after two years of statins (which made me ache) and low fat diet, they've decided I just have naturally high cholesterol, and because I don't drink or smoke and do modest exercise are likely to live well into my eighties. It's rubbish!
 
#8
tastybasslines said:
At Muay Thai last night, another boxer and I were talking about diet. He says he eats 5 eggs a day, yolk and all and that it's a myth that yolks are bad for you. I asked him about the cholesterol and he said that it is the "good" cholesterol, and not bad for you like the cholesterol that comes from other food sources. My father in law agrees with him.

5 yolks a day though?

So many doctor reports seem to suggest that eating so many eggs is still not very good for you. And that 2 a day exceeds the recommended intake.

I love eggs and am moving to a higher protein diet. I'm going to be taking protein powder as well, and am not looking for general diet advice.

What does TBOT think of egg yolks? Yay or nay?
Click to expand...

I fuel my MMA regimen with a fair amount of eggs... lately ive been eating two at a time and supplementing with eggwhites instead of eating 4 whole eggs at a time

I don't believe that eggs are bad, but 5 a day sounds a little much, if for no other reason than 'one side has to be right'
 
#15
Disclaimer: I am not a doctor, this is not medical advice, consult your physician, etc.

I have gotten interested in this over the past 18 months after my wife and I switched to a low carb diet. We became concerned about whether we were now consuming too much fat, or too much of the wrong fats. As far as I can tell, that is a non-concern, and my last two physicals back it up. I am consuming more animal-based protein and fat (including cholesterol) than I ever have, and my cholesterol is lower than it has ever been.

The latest research on cholesterol seems to indicate that much of what we thought we knew about it was wrong. It is probably bad to have too much of the wrong kind, but it is increasingly clear that eating foods that are high in cholesterol does not itself lead to higher cholesterol levels in the bloodstream. In fact there seems to be strong evidence that eating a high carb diet leads to higher cholesterol levels. Exercise in turn reduces cholesterol levels.

Why? It turns out that the body is very efficient at converting food into energy and then converting excess energy into fat; it doesn't just e.g. take in fat and store it as fat, or take in cholesterol and store it as cholesterol. Excess sugars ultimately get stored as fat, including cholesterol. Reducing the intake of sugars, and consuming sugars through exercise, reduces the amount that is ultimately converted into fat generally and cholesterol specifically.

IMO, the medical community is going to have egg on its face (ha) for the 30 years of misinformation they have been trumpeting on this topic.
 
#16
Eating food that has cholesterol does not necessarily translate to you having high cholesterol. Eating food that has fat doesn't necessarily translate to you getting fat.

Not overeating and exercising will be way more effective for lowering cholesterol than worrying about how much cholesterol a type of food has.

I try and eat 2 whole eggs supplemented with some egg whites everyday.
 
#17
I just found this article. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-berardi-phd/egss-and-health_b_3499583.html

Look at what he says:

"The interesting twist? When you eat more cholesterol from foods like eggs, your body produces less of it. And when you eat less cholesterol from foods like eggs, your body produces more."

and

"Regardless, researchers have looked at the diets of hundreds of thousands of people. And they've suggested that consuming eggs every day is not associated with cholesterol problems or heart disease."

This is in line with the idea that eggs have to good cholesterol...not the bad stuff.
 
#18
Egg Yolks are not bad for you. I have been eating between 6-10 whole eggs for breakfast for years and my bloodwark is perfect. That said, I am pretty picky about my diet. I eat probably about 10% processed foods and the majority of my diet is from organic, single ingredient sources. I avoid fast food, soda and other extremely sugary things. People that act like they don't fill their diets with crap and keep elimintating nutritious whole foods are morons. All the chemicals and hormones in food these days and people are worried about egg yolks...
 
#19
Ive never cared what people have said regarding eggs.
When I was younger I didnt like them much, as they made me gassy. I hated egg yolk, and if I ate eggs, they were scrambled (yes, yolk and all, it didnt seem to bother me that way).
These days, well eggs can still make me gassy but, I like them much more. I prefer them over easy, if fried. I still like them scrambled, usually with soyrizo. Last weekend I made them with leftover chili.
I tend to only eat them on the weekends, as thats when I have time to cook breakfast.
 

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