Who can keep up?
One day eggs are good for you and the next day they’re bad. What’s an egg lover to do?
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Whether eggs are good or bad for your heart health may be solved, after a team of researchers concluded that about one egg a day is fine, according to Medical Xpress. They determined there is no harm from consuming eggs in moderation.
That’s good news, but before you crack that egg, know what’s behind those confusing labels.
Health conscious consumers know to look for egg labels such as “organic,” “free-range,” “pastured” and “cage-free,” but while you may think many of these are interchangeable, they’re not. The organic label is the only way to ensure you’re getting eggs from chickens that have not been fed antibiotics for growth purposes, which is not allowed under the organic standards.
But, while organic poultry and eggs are guaranteed to be free-range, as required by organic standards, free-range poultry are not required to be organic. If it sounds confusing, just remember that, overall, the cage-free and free-range labels say little to nothing about the conditions in which the chickens are raised. For the best quality eggs, from the most humanely-raised hens, the label you’re looking for is “organic” and “pastured.”
About 30% of the total fat content of an egg is saturated fat, while the remainder is monounsaturated fats (MUFA) and polyunsaturated fats (PUFA), both of which are heart healthy. The yolk is arguably the healthiest part of the whole egg, because it contains vitamins A, D, E, K and B12, omega-3 fats, antioxidants, folate and carotenoids.
Eggs also help reduce your appetite, so you might eat less later. In fact, another study contradicts the above study and found you can consume two eggs a day, six days a week, and be healthier for it.
Because it’s so nutrient rich, the “eggceptional” egg is considered to be an almost perfect food. But some eggs you consume may not be eggs at all.
Because the FDA has not established a definition for eggs, it allows restaurants to pass off “eggish” products as real eggs, with most customers not realizing the difference.
Food chain Panera, which offers a breakfast sandwich made from “100% real eggs,” petitioned the FDA, asking for real eggs to be defined as “a food made from a cracked shell egg without addition of additives or further processing.” It defies reason, but the FDA did not move on that request and still has no definition of what constitutes a real egg.
One can only speculate why the FDA would avoid defining real eggs, but it does allow restaurants to sell egg substitutes as real eggs.
Ironically, fast food giant McDonalds— hardly known for wholesome food — is among those that touts the use of a whole cracked egg in its breakfast menu, but only on its McMuffin (which still does not make it a health food).
Most of their other egg sandwiches contain “folded egg,” which is a mix of eggs, nonfat milk, modified food starch, salt and citric acid, as do other restaurants that offer morning breakfast foods.