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Using only egg whites instead of consuming whole eggs
became trendy over the past decade as low-fat diets grew in
popularity.
The bulk of scientific research on nutrition suggests
that this kind of thinking was misguided.
Whole eggs can be part of a healthy diet because
they're more filling, high in protein, and contain several key
vitamins and minerals.
Purge your kitchen of gluten. Stick to low-fat foods. Drink
juice. By the time you've put
the latest advice on healthy eating into practice, it's
usually been debunked.
In reality, the best nutritional guidance is more
straight-forward and hasn't budged in decades: eat mostly
vegetables, which are high in vitamins, minerals, and fiber;
avoid overeating red meat and refined treats like pastries and
sweet cereal; and indulge in healthy fats like olive oil and
nuts, which keep us feeling full.
But you may be wondering where eggs — an animal product high in
cholesterol, fat, protein, and several key vitamins and minerals
— fit in.
Turns out they're pretty healthy. And ordering
just the whites, a practice that low-fat food advocates
say is a way
to shave off calories, fat, and cholesterol, is completely
unnecessary.
Whole eggs are high in a handful of key vitamins and minerals
that you can't get from many foods like vitamin B12 and
phosphorus. They're also rich in muscle-fueling protein and
satiating fat, which makes them filling and unlikely to be
overeaten. Plus, the cholesterol eggs contain does not appear to
lead to high cholesterol levels in healthy
people. Just as eating
fat does not translate into being fat, recent research has
shown that eating
cholesterol doesn't necessarily translate into
having high cholesterol.
If you've already been told you have high cholesterol,
that's a good reason to be careful about ordering something like
a three-egg omelette, but one or two whole eggs every so often
probably won't hurt. (As with any serious health condition, it's
best in these cases to talk directly with your doctor.)
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Throwing out yolks also creates unnecessary waste. Roughly a
third of the US food supply gets wasted every year, according to
estimates
from the Department of Agriculture. That corresponds to
roughly 133 billion pounds and $161 billion worth of food.
Given what we know about eggs, several leading diets have
recently tweaked their recommendations.
Weight Watchers — one of the oldest dieting companies in the
world —
introduced a new program in December that allows users to
spice up their daily meal plans with 200 "zero-point" foods that
they can eat as much as they want. That list includes whole
eggs, along with other filling and nutritious items like salmon
and beans.
"These foods get picked for a reason,"
Gary
Foster
, Weight Watchers' chief scientific officer,
told Business Insider in December.
"Eggs have been extensively
studied because they’re relatively high in cholesterol but low in
saturated fat and also are an excellent source of protein. What
else do eggs bring to the table? High-quality protein, people
like to eat them, and they’re at a relatively low risk for
overeating," Foster said. "What are the chances that someone will
have an eight- or 10-egg omelette?"
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