It all started with a retweet about eggs and protein. I received more comments to that tweet on both my Facebook and Twitter accounts than on almost any other topic. I think that people just love their eggs.
All joking aside every few years there is an entirely new study about eggs. There isn’t ever any true conclusion if they are good for you or not. So I decided to talk about eggs from a nutritional and medical intuitive perspective.
A medical intuitive perspective is a perspective in which takes in the totality or holistic view of an issue.
The problem with the egg is that we have pulled apart its components and then studied the effects of those components on the human body. For that matter that’s what we do with most things, forgetting that the “whole is greater than the sum of the parts its made of”. In the 60’s there was a cholesterol scare craze, stopping us from eating eggs, this was before we looked at sedentary living and other lifestyle factors.
Here are some facts…
| HEN EGGS (composition in 100 gr. of eatable matter) |
|
|
Water |
75.2 g |
Eggs are healthy and complete food. The variety of nutrients and the high absorption of our body make eggs one of the most complete foods. Eggs compounds are essential for human body functions as well as for health.
Eggs are rich on high biological value proteins easy to digest. Egg protein is very good, scientist even use it as pattern to compare the protein quality of other food.
One egg has a significant quantity of a wide range of vitamins (A, B2, B12, D, E, etc) and minerals (phosphorus, selenium, iron, iodine y zinc) that contribute to cover a large part of adults’ ADI of nutrients. The action of some vitamins and oligoelements of eggs help to protect our body from degenerative process such as cancer, diabetes, cataract and some cardiovascular conditions.
The energetic content of an egg is about 75 kilocalories. Thus, eggs have a low caloric content and they do not promote obesity. Many dishes prepared with eggs may be cooked without added fat.
An egg has 7.5 gr of lipids, from what 2 gr are saturated fatty acids (SFA), 1.1 gr. are polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) and 3 gr. are monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA). The ratio PUFA/SFA is 0.55; it is an acceptable quantity recommendable from a nutritional point of view.
We have to highlight the rich content of oleic acid (monounsaturated), very appreciated for its good effect on health.
Eggs are the main source of phospholipids of our diet and they help to cover significantly our need of linoleic acid, an essential acid that our body cannot synthesize.
One egg gives us a large part of the admissible choline intake recommended by the nutritional education office (500 mg./day). Eggs are also the best source of lecithin (phosphatidylcholine), a very interesting nutritional compound because of its importance in several metabolic processes, in the building of cell membranes and in the acethylcholine neurotransmitter.
Recent researches report that eggs are also an available source of carotenoids (luteine, zeaxanthene). These antioxidant compounds can help to prevent macular degeneration and to delay the appearance of cataracts. (MOELLER, S.M.; JACQUES, P.F.; BLUMBERG, J.B. The potential role of dietary xanthophylls in cataract and age-related macular degeneration. J. Am. Coll. Nutr. 2000; 19:522S-527S).
That’s the nutrient value… alone.
So what about the other aspects of the egg?
On an energetic level… eggs are complete. They are pure potential. Potential is just that… it can be made into anything. So if you are believing that the food/egg you eat is bad for you it will be.
The egg and its shape allows for all possibilities to arise. It is weighted on one end so it can get grounded into manifestation.
If you do not have eggs in your diet, please consider adding some. Whole is better than not, real rather than substitute. That goes for all foods. Good nutrition comes from having all the vitamins, minerals etc.. interacting together in the proportions they come in naturally. The only time we need to supplement is when we are not getting what is needed out of our foods.
