The Egg, God’s great invention or mans interpretation of a potential dietary disaster? What’s the latest on eating eggs? Well, first a little history. The egg is called the reference protein, which means the protein combination in an egg is as near to biologically perfect as a food substance could be in terms of meeting the needs of the human body. We are almost all aware of the years of bad publicity the egg has received for its supposed contribution to raising our cholesterol thereby increasing our risk for heart disease. We’ve been told if we must eat them, to limit intake to no more than 2 per week, and try to consume only egg whites or egg substitutes at all other times. This is all due to the fact science has established a 300 milligram daily limit to the cholesterol we consume. One egg yolk contains approximately 275 milligrams. But now as often seems to be happening with dietary recommendations, the ban on eggs appears to be lifting. They do after all contain certain nutrients that are considered to be good for our health, in particular offering benefits to the heart. Now we are learning that cholesterol from the diet does not raise cholesterol in the body by as much as was originally thought. Reprieve for eggs? Maybe so, and consider this, a rather large study including over 27,000 people who consumed eggs in varying amounts found egg consumers had lower levels of cholesterol in their bodies than those who consumed no eggs. 2 to 3 eggs per week produced slightly less cholesterol than those who had 4 or more, but still the egg eaters performed better on their cholesterol tests than those who ate little or none. The nutrients found in eggs besides the great protein arrangement are ‘good’ fat, vitamins, and antioxidants (help to prevent unhealthy cell damage), and these in turn contribute to a healthy heart. Girls, even good news for us, the study showed women who at four or more eggs per week had the lowest cholesterol of all! If you’re dieting the egg has a measly 75 calories and if you prepare it poached or basted, you can keep it down to the 75 with no added fat. Add this to the fact it is power packed with essential proteins and well, you can’t beat it, no pun intended. You must be careful handling eggs though, recent years have seen outbreaks of Salmonella, an intestinal bug, associated with raw egg products, so no licking the spoon after stirring up raw cookie dough, and cook all egg containing foods before eating even one taste. It used to be considered a healthy thing to add a raw egg to orange juice, this is not a good idea, even though salmonella in eggs is rare, about 1 egg in every 20,000 is contaminated, it’s a pretty uncomfortable disease to tangle with, especially for children and the elderly. Just a final word on the conundrum between cage free chicken eggs, which I believe is close to natural and God’s intent, they should also be hormone and antibiotic free, but it’s not necessary to go so far as to spend the extra money for dietary composition altered eggs which contain extra omega 3 fats, which are lacking in the standard American diet. These fats and how to get them into your diet in the proper proportion will be the subject of my next writing.

My name is Nancy Roberts, and I have both a bachelors and masters of science degree in Nutrition, from the University of Arizona, and have successfully competed for and completed an 11 month internship making me eligible to take the National examination for certification, which I passed and for which I was awarded the credentials of Registered Dietitian. Pastor Gary asked me if I would provide nutrition information for the Horizon Church website which I am happy to do. I will be contributing on a regular basis. I believe God gave us the tools for a happy healthy life and we just need to apply good common sense in the area of what we eat. Science is constantly discovering the various phytonutrients in fruits and vegetables that are natural disease preventers and good health enhancers. I study nutrition because again, I believe God gave us the ability to learn about and take good care of the health he’s bestowed on us by eating correctly. (We also need regular, restful sleep and physical activity, but that’s for another discussion).