The title of this post may surprise you, but I want to talk about egg yolks, and sources of saturated fat in general. The truth is that plant foods do not have essential nutrients like Vitamin B12, D, F and K2, which is one reason (combined with several others) that I decided to stop being a vegan. In addition, they are lacking important amino acids like creatine, carnitine, and taurine. Animal foods, and high quality sources of saturated fat, like beautiful rich orange egg yolks from pasture raised chickens are very beneficial to a well-balanced diet, and contain a plethora of nutrients that support thriving health.
When people throw away egg yolks, honestly, it makes me cringe a little. This is because egg whites basically have no nutrition compared to the egg yolk. Egg whites are very low in calories and high in protein, which makes them a good diet food but not a very nutritious food.
The yolk of an egg, particularly a good, organic, free range egg, is the healthiest part of the egg by far and provides crucial vitamins like vitamin A, D, E and K. Egg yolks also contain incredible omega 3 fats, and vitamin B12. The reason why egg yolks have been deemed unhealthy and many people avoid them is because they are high in both cholesterol and saturated fat. This relates to the reason a lot of people decide to be vegan…they believe that cholesterol and saturated fat contribute to heart disease. In my opinion, even though cholesterol has been demonized, it actually has a lot of health benefits and can support your health and beauty. Cholesterol plays a critical role within cell membranes and also plays important role in your brain since 25 percent of the cholesterol of your body is in your brain.T he reason why cholesterol is produced in your body by your liver is because your body needs cholesterol. If we do not eat enough cholesterol, our body will start to make more cholesterol, which can actually make this problem worse. On the contrary, if we eat enough cholesterol, our bodies don’t need to go into overdrive mode trying to produce it.
Important Nutrients in Egg yolks:
- Lutein/Zeaxanthin: These are two carotenoids that help protect eyesight and blue light damage
- Choline: Choline is a B vitamin that not enough people are getting enough of. It is crucial for liver, brain, and nervous system function
- Vitamin D, Vitamin E and Vitamin B12: Essential for proper mood regulation and skin health
The best part about eggs is that they are not too expensive, and there are several ways to prepare them. I prefer my eggs to be poached, soft boiled or over easy. You don’t want to cook your eggs too much as this will damage the antioxidant properties. Additionally, cholesterol is oxidized at high temperatures, so scrambled eggs are not ideal. Organic eggs are important as they contain more vitamin A, omega 3, vitamin E and beta-carotene. You can determine the quality of an egg yolk if is bright orange, not a pale yellow.
We need to take consideration from other cultures around the world whose diet consist very high in saturated fat, and have virtually very low rates of heart disease. For example Eskimo tribes eat whale meat and blubber, about 75 percent saturated fat and have very low rates of heart disease.
Saturated fat is actually very good for your skin since our cell membranes are made up of 50 percent saturated fats. Foods like coconut oil, organic grass fed butter, organ meats and so on contain high amounts of the essential nutrients that I mentioned above. People are so strict on cutting down on butter, egg yolks, and meats, but then they will go eat sugary and processed foods like low-calorie yogurt, protein shakes, cereal, bars and other crap. It makes no sense to me. Think about our ancestors and what they survived on. They didn’t have these major food processing plants adding all sorts of dyes, preservatives and chemicals to foods. They lived off of foods they could hunt, kill, and harvest. And heart disease rates were virtually non-existent. These are all things to take into consider, and I highly recommend that you guys look more into this topic with your own research as well. The link below contains plenty of useful information.
Let me know what you think!