I see a lot of people eating egg whites but not yolks, or minimum yolks compared to the amount of egg whites.

My question is why are they bad?

I see a lot of people eating egg whites but not yolks, or minimum yolks compared to the amount of egg whites.

My question is why are they bad?


If I'm not mistaken the yolk contains mostly fat and cholesterol and alot more calories than just the eggwhites. Nothing wrong with the yolk, I think that most people don't feel they need the added fat and cholesterol.

Pam

Yolks have a approximately 5g of fat and a fair amount of cholesterole. That said, the yolk provides an excellent source of very good quality protein. I try to get a 1:4 / 1:5 ratio between yolk:white when I'm making something egg heavy. (Omelette, power pancake etc)

There's absolutely nothing wrong with egg yolk! Some people would just rather get their fat source from other foods (i.e. nuts, olive oil, flax oil, etc.). I used to be a strong believer in egg yolks being BAD because they had "so much fat!" Once I started the whole cutting process, I found out that there's nothing wrong with egg yolks if you take the 5g of fat per yolk into your daily fat requirements, which I do. After fasted-state cardio every morning, I come home to my F+P trademark omlette (1 egg + 50 mL egg whites + tons of veggies). Give egg yolks a chance...they'll only do you good!

There is absolutely nothing wrong with egg yolks. The are an excellent source of protein and fat. However, most here are trying to manage their macro nutrients. To get the target goals for macro nutrients, the ratio of protein:fat is too high. Thus, more egg yolks are disgarded to get more egg whites. Egg whites are entirely protein.

agreed with everyone that loves yolks, they are a nutritional powerhouse! they are also one of the only natural sources of vitamin D which doesnt come from the sun (getting your vitamins through food is far better than getting it through vitamin pills or from man made sources)
not to mention they have a STACK of other vitamins and minerals, not to mention without the yolk the absorbtion of the protein in the white is lowered

its just that when you just want lean protein, whites are great

Nobody on here is worried about saturated fat content or cholesterol intake from egg yolks? why spend the extra money on extra lean meats in order to avoid these compounds and then turn around and eat 5 egg yolks a day? seems counterintuitive to me. Yes egg yolks would be good for adding lean mass but is it all about adding lean mass? At some point you need to wonder what is going on in your cardiovascular system. And NO exercise will not lower cholesterol in any way so don't count on that (though it can raise good HDL cholesterol to some extent).

who knows though, maybe if you eat 2 or 3 hundred percent of your daily allowed cholesterol and sat fat intake it doesn't matter if you also eat loads of vegetables and fiber? most studies that look at sat fat and chol intake are done on average people eating average diets over a number of years. Just to be safe, I limit myself to an egg yolk or two max a day. Then again, I try to limit myself to 1 or 2 of anything a day. Otherwise it just gets boring.

The whole cholesterol and saturated fat intake is blown out of proportion.

While this is not the popular trend, I'm going to say it here ... saturated fats are not evil. In fact, they are fine.

It is saturated fats in a diet of excess calories that are dangerous. Most of America is GAINING weight, and that nutrition has a ton of saturated fats. This is an issue.

When maintaining or even cutting, saturated fats are less of an issue because, by definition, you are burning your nutrients for energy. That is how you maintain or create a loss - you are not storing.

The cholesterol issue has been also addressed. Many people do not get high blood cholesterol by eating high cholesterol food. I'm proof - I consume 1,000 - 1,200 mg of cholesterol in a given day and have normal cholesterol levels. It is excess calories that turn into saturated fats, which are then manufactured into cholesterol, that is the issue. Again, for people maintaining or cutting, not a problem.

There are a few people who are cholesterol sensitive and should monitor cholesterol in their diet. This is a minority, however, and not a majority. Their feedback mechanisms don't down regulate the body's normal cholesterol production like other people.

As for the yolk, one ironic aspect is that the egg is always touted as a great protein source, high protein value, etc, and then you're told to eat the white. When you really look into it, it is the yolk's contribution that creates the high protein value! When you remove the yolk, the protein value goes down, significantly. You get protein from whites, but they are not assimilated as efficiently as the protein from the whole egg. For this reason, it makes sense to throw a yolk or two in.

Really, it does come down to calories. Eliminating the yolk is a way to cut back on calories when people are focusing on specific intakes. However, provided the yolk doesn't take someone outside of their target intake, it is a very nutrititious component and is fine - I have most of my clients who are, say, eating 6 egg whites to switch to, say, 1 whole egg and 3 or 4 whites instead.

The yolk also is different depending on the type of eggs you buy. Eggs from typical grain fed chickens are high in saturated fat and cholesterol. Eggs from free range chickens are lower in cholesterol and higher in healthy (omega-3, omega-6, etc) fat content because the chickens get to exercise and eat their natural diet, producing a healthier egg. A compromise is grain fed chickens who don't necessarily exercise but have a more optimal diet than corn.

Jeremy Likness

Nobody on here is worried about saturated fat content or cholesterol intake from egg yolks? why spend the extra money on extra lean meats in order to avoid these compounds and then turn around and eat 5 egg yolks a day? seems counterintuitive to me. Yes egg yolks would be good for adding lean mass but is it all about adding lean mass? At some point you need to wonder what is going on in your cardiovascular system. And NO exercise will not lower cholesterol in any way so don't count on that (though it can raise good HDL cholesterol to some extent).

who knows though, maybe if you eat 2 or 3 hundred percent of your daily allowed cholesterol and sat fat intake it doesn't matter if you also eat loads of vegetables and fiber? most studies that look at sat fat and chol intake are done on average people eating average diets over a number of years. Just to be safe, I limit myself to an egg yolk or two max a day. Then again, I try to limit myself to 1 or 2 of anything a day. Otherwise it just gets boring.

I think the reason you spend money on lean meats is just to keep your macros in check, right? Cuts of meat that aren't lean add lots of dense fat calories to your diet really fast. Before you know it, the proportions can get all out of whack.

Eggs have an additional advantage because they're self-contained (or, rather, chicken-contained). It's a tricky proposition to grossly overeat on eggs - you have to make the decision to overeat multiple times. You're not going to accidentally eat ten eggs when you meant to eat five eggs, whereas it's pretty easy for a 6 oz. steak to become a 12 oz. steak if you buy your meat in bulk or cook for multiple people.

Exercise won't lower your cholesterol, but losing body fat probably will, and exercise is an important component of that. I think the pharmaceutical companies really love to play down how much high cholesterol is the result of obesity.



Nobody on here is worried about saturated fat content or cholesterol intake from egg yolks? why spend the extra money on extra lean meats in order to avoid these compounds and then turn around and eat 5 egg yolks a day? seems counterintuitive to me. Yes egg yolks would be good for adding lean mass but is it all about adding lean mass? At some point you need to wonder what is going on in your cardiovascular system. And NO exercise will not lower cholesterol in any way so don't count on that (though it can raise good HDL cholesterol to some extent).

who knows though, maybe if you eat 2 or 3 hundred percent of your daily allowed cholesterol and sat fat intake it doesn't matter if you also eat loads of vegetables and fiber? most studies that look at sat fat and chol intake are done on average people eating average diets over a number of years. Just to be safe, I limit myself to an egg yolk or two max a day. Then again, I try to limit myself to 1 or 2 of anything a day. Otherwise it just gets boring.

I've been reading Nancy Clark's Sports Nutrition Guidebook (3rd. ed.) and came across this [pg. 32]:


"Eggs and Heart Health

Eggs have gotten a bad rap when it comes to healthy eating. Medical experts have told us that eating eggs is bad because a single egg has 210 milligrams of cholesterol, which just about hits the American Heart Association's recommended limit of 300 milligrams per day. But recent studies suggest that egg cholesterol may have little effect on the blood cholesterol level in many people, especially in combination with an overall low-fat diet (Ginsberg et al. 1995; Kritchevsky and Kritchevsky 2000).

To date, it is unclear whether the cholesterol that you eat affects the cholesterol in your blood, because most of the cholesterol in the blood is made in the liver. We do know that dietary fats affect the way the body disposes of cholesterol. In particuluar, saturated fats (such as butter and beef fat) appear to inhibit the ability of the body to get rid of the bad form of cholesterol (low-density lipoproteins, or LDL) that closgs arteries. We also know that some people respond more readily than others to a low-cholesterol diet, and that dietary recommendation need to be individualized."

I think the part about dietary recommendations need to be individualized is sage advice.

I also came across this on the web from http://www.drlam.com/A3R_brief_in_doc_format/2003-No3-Eggs.cfm#Cholesterol

Dr. Lam's article also mentions the Ginsberg study.

Eggs have been widely known for their high fat and high cholesterol content, providing about 200 mg of cholesterol per egg. Cholesterol from the egg comes exclusively from the egg yolk.

Ever since the discovery that links high blood cholesterol to an increased incidence of cardiovascular disease, the logical conclusion is that any food high in cholesterol should be avoided since consumption of such dietary cholesterol may lead to an increase in blood cholesterol. The hypothesis that "high dietary cholesterol leads to high blood cholesterol" has become such a standard dietary claim that anyone who wishes to avoid or lower the chances of getting heart diseases has to restrict their intake of eggs. Few people have carefully examined the evidences to this hypothesis.

The majority of studies conducted over the past two decades on eggs and cholesterol have shown that dietary cholesterol only has a weak link, at best, to blood cholesterol levels because there is only a relatively small change in blood cholesterol levels in response to changes in dietary cholesterol intake.

For example, Harvard researchers report in the April 21, 1999 Journal of the American Medical Association that they could find no relationship of moderate egg intake (I per day) with heart disease. Two large prospective studies of 38,000 men and 80,000 women looked at heart attacks and strokes in 8 to 14 years of follow-up after asking about dietary habits. There was no statistically significant difference in risk among people who ate eggs less than once a week compared with those who ate more than one egg a day. The only increase in heart disease risk was seen in diabetics, both men and women. Eighty percent of diabetics are obese. It is thought that the increased risk is linked more to obesity, although the exact mechanism is not known.

Researchers have further established that the average response to a 100 mg/day change in dietary cholesterol intake leads to a 2.5 mg/dl change in blood cholesterol levels. While some individuals are more sensitive to the effects of dietary cholesterol (15-20% of the population), the dose adjusted response factor in this group is still relatively small (3.2 vs. 1.6 for sensitive vs. resistant study subjects). For example, it can be estimated that reducing dietary cholesterol intake from 400 mg/day to 300 mg/day results in a plasma cholesterol reduction of 3.2 mg/dl in cholesterol sensitive individuals and as little as 1.6 mg/dl in cholesterol insensitive individuals.

In a study by Schnoh et al in 1994, the diet of 24 adults was changed by addition of two eggs per day (400 mg of cholesterol) for six weeks. The researchers found that their total cholesterol levels increased by 4%, while HDL cholesterol levels increased 10%. The dose adjusted response to the change in dietary cholesterol was 2.4 mg/dl per 100 mg/day. This study showed that moderate egg intake should not be rigorously restricted in healthy individuals.

In another study by Ginsberg et al in 1994, twenty-four young men were fed 30% fat diets with an addition of zero (128 mg cholesterol/day), one (283 mg/day), two (468 mg/day) or four (858 mg/day) eggs per day to the base diet. Each diet lasted eight weeks. The average blood cholesterol levels in the twenty-four subjects were 155, 161, 162, and 166 mg/dl for the zero, one, two and four eggs per day feeding periods. Plasma total cholesterol increased 1.5 mg/dl per 100 mg/day added dietary cholesterol.

Even more important in this particular study was the finding that there was no evidence that changes in dietary cholesterol intakes altered the postprandial plasma lipoprotein profile (lipoproteins thought to be involved in the development of atherosclerosis) and thus did not alter the atherogenic potential of the plasma lipoproteins. The data indicate that in the majority of healthy young men, an addition of two eggs per day to a low-fat diet has little effect on plasma cholesterol levels.

Ginsberg followed up with another study in 1995 with a controlled dietary cholesterol feeding study. This time in young women. The effects of feeding zero, one, or three eggs per day on plasma lipids and lipoproteins were measured. Results showed that the dose adjusted plasma cholesterol response was 2.8 mg/dl per 100 mg/day dietary cholesterol (a value higher than that obtained in males in the 1994 study). In women, however, the increase in total plasma cholesterol with dietary cholesterol occurred in both the atherogenic LDL cholesterol (2.1 mg/dl per 100 mg/day) and the anti-atherogenic HDL cholesterol (0.6 mg/dl per 100 mg/day). As found in the previous study in healthy young men, young women have the ability to compensate for an increased intake of cholesterol by adjusting the way cholesterol is handled by the body. The data shows that an addition of two eggs per day to the diet of healthy young women has little effect on plasma cholesterol levels in the majority of study subjects.

In addition to the lack of significant correlation between dietary and blood cholesterol, many studies have shown that dietary cholesterol increases both LDL and HDL cholesterol concurrently, with essentially no change in the important LDL: HDL cholesterol ratio. For example, studies have shown that a change of diet by increasing ingestion of 100 mg cholesterol raises LDL cholesterol by 1.9 mg/dL and HDL cholesterol by 0.4 mg/dL. The LDL: HDL ratio change went from 2.60 to 2.61. Risk for cardiovascular disease remained the same.

The average American diet derives over 40% of its calories from fat, and the type of fat consumed is usually saturated fat from animal sources such as beef and trans-fat commonly found in fast foods such as French fries. For people on such a "bad fat" diet, consumption of eggs should be reduced and monitored. For healthy individuals who derive only 30 percent of their calories from fat, a moderate intake of one egg a day should not be restricted. The use of dietary intervention as a way to reduce blood cholesterol level should therefore be undertaken with great care to take into consideration the high variability among individuals.

Cholesterol is a much-needed macronutrient in the body. Too low a level is not good, and too high is also not good. Recent studies have linked a low blood cholesterol level of under 150 mg/dl to increased rate of cancer. Optimum cholesterol level in our body should be around 200 mg/dl, with a properly balanced total cholesterol/ HDL cholesterol ratio of lower than 4 to 1.

Dietary cholesterol is, however, associated with a higher risk of gallstones whose primary component is cholesterol, hence the term; cholesterol gallstones. Excess cholesterol that is taken in through the diet will be absorbed into the blood stream. Some of the cholesterol is carried to the gall bladder, one place where it is eliminated.

Dietary cholesterol's link with the occurrence of coronary heart disease or fatality is clearly weak at best. Clearly, the egg is not the demon it has been made out to be at moderate consumption of one per day for the healthy individual.

I think that given Nancy Clark's advice regarding individualizing dietary needs, one could make a case that some individuals should probably not have one [whole] egg per day and that other individuals could safely consume two whole eggs per day, especially considering other portions of their diet.

Bearing in mind too that none of this has addressed the impact of other parts of a diet that could reduce LDL independent of egg consumption.

~B

P.S. I also found articles from the (naturally-biased) Egg industry websites Canada. This is an 8-page summary of a scientific study, so unless you're accustomed to reading such things, you'll find it very technical.

"Researchers from the University of Connecticut have recently found that eating eggs every day does not impact the cholesterol particles in the blood most likely to cause heart disease"
http://www.eggs.ca/pdf/HerronJune2004metabolism.pdf

I only eat Flax Eggs..
I believe my parents get them from Costco..
They are much healthier for you.

i eat 4 egg whites and 1 whole egg every morning

egg yolks have a lot of fat and cholesterol, extra egg yolks mean more cals and fat which i dont want

I think it's also important to remember that Saturated fats play an important role in many different hormonal functions, so cutting them out completely would be a bad idea IMO.