Smoking Eggs

I just recently read where some ‘Government Expert’ has likened eating eggs to smoking. I wish I was smoking what those guys were smoking to say eggs are as bad as smoking.

Point 1: Smoking is possibly the absolute worst thing you could do to your body, next to stepping in front of a moving bus. It cuts off air flow, hardens your arteries and burns out your airways. This, in turn, causes numerous fatal and disabling diseases, and complicates others – not just the ones you think about like heart disease and cancer, but ones you really think about like erectile dysfunction. It even causes problems wouldn’t think about like complicating the recovery from herniated discs and medications.

Point 2. Yes, eggs are high in cholesterol, but they are also high in protein, relatively low calorie and are full of numerous essential vitamins and minerals. (These are good for you!) So even though they are high in cholesterol, eating eggs does not necessarily cause high cholesterol. In fact, less than 25% of the cholesterol in your body is absorbed as cholesterol, the rest is made within you. This brings me to a few sub points:

     2a. The cholesterol in eggs is easily removed from the digestive tract and sent out the back door, especially due to the high levels of lecithin in eggs-a solvent that dissolves out fats.

     2b. Cholesterol isn’t inherently evil in and of itself. It actually has many beneficial uses like forming the backbone of hormones. However, in the presence of inflammation and high blood pressure, cholesterol can then attach to damaged areas of vessel walls forming plaques-that’s why they want to keep it low. 2b subpart I. Let’s say your cholesterol levels run about 250 (and let’s assume your BP is running north of 140/90, which is high). You are now a candidate for imminent heart disease. If you became a vegan today (cholesterol is found exclusively in animal products), that would bring your cholesterol down to 187.5ish; drastically reducing your risk of heart disease. But let’s say your cholesterol is like 400. To stop eating animal products would only lower you to 300-still no bueno. In fact, most of your cholesterol is made from unused carbohydrates. You want less cholesterol, quit eating carbohydrates. Plus a few other dietary tricks like eating spices such as garlic, fiber (fiber acts like a giant sponge sweeping down your gut) and un-saturated fats (olive, coconut, other real nut oil etc).

          So, in conclusion, if you have high cholesterol and other heart disease indicators, yes cutting back on eggs will reduce your cholesterol. But, cutting back on carbs and empty calories like sugar and alcohol will do so even more. Smoking is still bad, but eggs are not evil.