5 Reasons to Eat Fresh Eggs

The incredible, edible egg.

That was a huge marketing slogan started in 1976 for the American Egg Board.

Unfortunately, though, for decades the government and scientists said eggs were bad for you. Those groups have now backtracked on an assumption that a food high in cholesterol will give you high cholesterol. (More on that later).

So now, eggs have undergone an image makeover as doctors, health experts, and science realize they are pretty perfect food.

Here’s five reasons why you should eat eggs:

1. Eggs Are One of the Most Nutritious Foods on the Planet

One whole egg is incredibly nutrient dense. An egg contains so many nutrients in fact that it can turn a single fertilized cell into an entire baby chicken!

Eggs are full of vitamins, minerals, high-quality protein, good fats and various other nutrients.

One large egg contains:

• Vitamin B12 (cobalamin): 9% of the RDA
• Vitamin B2 (riboflavin): 15% of the RDA
• Vitamin A: 6% of the RDA
• Vitamin B5 (pantothenic acid): 7% of the RDA
• Selenium: 22% of the RDA

Eggs also contain small amounts of almost every vitamin and mineral required by the human body, including calcium, iron, potassium, zinc, manganese, vitamin E, folate and many more.

Almost all the nutrients are contained in the yolk of the egg, the white part has only protein.

2. Eggs Improve Your Cholesterol Profile and Do NOT Raise Heart Disease Risk

All this egg bad press started with a warning that eggs are loaded with cholesterol, which the medical community believed had a direct link to heart disease.

However, despite the fact that a large eggs contains 212 mg of cholesterol, the truth is that dietary cholesterol sources have little effect on cholesterol levels in the blood.

The liver produces cholesterol in your body daily and that amount depends on what you eat. So, if you get cholesterol from your food, i.e. eggs, your liver produces less. If you avoid eating cholesterol, your liver will produce more of it.

In fact, many studies show that eating eggs actually improve your cholesterol profile.

Eggs raise HDL (the good) cholesterol and have a tendency to change the LDL (the bad) cholesterol to a large subtype, one of which is not as strongly associated with an increased risk of heart disease.

3. Eggs Are Good Brain Food and Great for General Health

Eggs are loaded with choline, a nutrient that is often grouped with the B-complex vitamins. It is essential for human health and necessary for various processes in the body.

Choline contributes important nutrients during fetal development and keeps our brains healthy as adults. It plays an important role in memory, so eating eggs as we get older is a good thing!

Also, eggs contain lutein, plus zeaxanthin and carotinoids (found in the yolk), which are essential in eye health and important in fighting disease.

4. Eggs Contain High-Quality Proteins with the Perfect Amino Acid Profile

Eggs are a significant source of protein, with approximately 6 grams of protein per egg. Proteins are the main building blocks of the body, helping to build muscles, and consist of amino acids.

There are about 21 amino acids the body uses to build proteins, however, nine of these, known as essential amino acids, cannot be produced by the body and need to be obtained from the diet.

Egg are considered a complete protein because they contain all nine of those amino acids.

5. Eggs for Breakfast Can Help You Lose Weight

Eggs have plenty of protein and fat, but only trace amounts of carbohydrates. They score very high on the satiety index, which measures how full one feels after eating.

Because of this, eating eggs for breakfast can actually lead to weight and fat loss.

Studies show that people who ate eggs for breakfast (instead of something that had the same number of calories, such as bagels) felt fuller and ate less calories the rest of the day, resulting in a more significant weight loss.

Not all eggs are created equal

Commercial eggs are often produced by hens raised in factory farms, which are fed a grain-based feed that alters the final nutrient composition of their eggs.

In addition to the inhumane treatment of hens in factory farms, the eggs you buy in the grocery store are much older than fresh eggs from your own backyard hens.

Nothing beats the taste, color, and consistency that comes with eating fresh eggs from your own chickens. Plus the fact that your chickens are living a good life, eating what they are supposed to eat, and producing the most perfect food for you!

So sing it loud, “The incredible, edible egg.”