What better time than Easter to talk about eggs. Anyone who has read my book or seen my TV clip knows that I am big on eggs and by that I do not mean egg whites.
Eggs are one of the best bodybuilding foods, full of protein, minerals and vitamins. This makes complete sense if one considers that egg protein is the gold standard for biological value (100) of proteins. It has become a custom, however, to consume only the egg whites. The logic behind it is that all the fat is hidden in the yolk and all the protein in the egg white.
This is simply not a good idea since the majority of vitamins are found in the yolk. Furthermore, half the protein is in the yolk as well thereby consuming only the egg white leaves you with an incomplete protein chain which the body can not really digest.
If you are on a severe calorie restricted diet, try at least to have a 2-1 or 3-1 whites to yolk ratio.
What about cholesterol? Another old-wives tale: A study done by the University of Connecticut shows that eggs do not raise your cholesterol levels (unless they are consumed with butter and bacon!!) if anything they help lowering it by increasing the good (HDL) cholesterol.
Most people suffering from high cholesterol simply carry too much body fat (part of which is cholesterol), which makes for a higher amount of cholesterol in the blood stream and, eventually clogged arteries. Of course, there are some unfortunate souls who are genetically predisposed to have high cholesterol but this goes beyond the scope of this article.
The fat contained in the yolk is needed to build the steroidal (muscle building) hormones such as testosterone, estrogen and progesterone. Furthermore, your brain and nerves require cholesterol to function. If that doesn’t convince you to consume whole eggs I don’t know what will.
It would be best to try to find Omega 3 eggs to optimize the lipid profile, add some veggies and you are on your way to muscle greatness!
Froehliche Ostern
Maik
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