EGGS- WHY THE BAD REPUTATION?

April 13, 2010
"Be a blessing to someone today. Either your kind smile or a tap on the shoulder can make a difference. It may pull someone back from the edge."

I try on a daily basis to do this when I meet a new patient. Anyone who sees a new doctor is anxious and sometimes doubtful. The individual may have been recommended to come, but reservations and fear delayed their making an appointment. Finally they did. I smile. It makes a difference.

For the last three blogs, I have concentrated on cholesterol. Who knows that eggs and butter will increase cholesterol? True or False, Myth or Evidence? Both eggs and butter are thought to be major contributors to heart disease, but multiple studies have shown that a balanced diet with eggs will not increase your blood cholesterol level. The eggs produced from chickens consuming organic grains contain high amounts of lecithin. You must eat the whole egg--the yolk as well as the white. Lecithin emulsifies or breaks down other fats and improves the ability of the liver to break down and absorb fat properly. A whole egg!! A recent Korean study found that eating eggs that are DHA enriched reduced total cholesterol, platelets sticking, LDL and triglycerides.

The real deal: your body mass index (BMI) is far more important than your cholesterol panel. Today, we also should be measuring your sagittal abdominal diameter or SAD. This is better than waist measurement. It is the distance from the back to the upper abdomen midway between the top of the pelvis and the bottom of the ribs. It is estimated that 42% of men are more likely to develop heart disease with a large SAD.

There is no one diet for all. You CANNOT read a book about diet and decide this is the diet for you. A diet must be customized, based on food allergies, sugar consumption and the amount of fat and protein you should have.

Tomorrow, I will blog on alternatives to statin and 'what a diet should be'.

The needle work above is not needle point, petit point nor bargello. It is simple embroidery. Delicate, flowing and gentle is the canvas. This is a coaster. Of course, I wasn't satisfied without adding a letter (which still must be sewn).

Photo credit: Rick Byrd

Until tomorrow...