Love those eggs and butter?

Jan 3 2008

If you are one of the millions who are determined to start the New Year on a healthy basis it may not be as simple as you think.

Being bombarded by health experts and the media will only add to the confusion as everyone seems to have a different viewpoint.

Take two good examples, egg and butter versus margarine.

Many of us were brought up with the good old mantra of "go to work on an egg" and in all fairness eggs are an excellent 'natural' food source, every part is edible, apart from the shell.

Chicken eggs are the most commonly eaten eggs, and are a highly nutritious source of high-quality protein with all essential amino acids for humans and they also contain significant amounts of several vitamins and minerals, including vitamin A, riboflavin, folic acid, vitamin B6, vitamin B12, choline, iron, calcium, phosphorus and potassium.

They are also one of the least expensive single-food sources of complete protein, one large chicken egg contains approximately 7 grams of protein.

But here we go, what about cholesterol? Well yes eggs are high in cholesterol, and a diet high in cholesterol can contribute to elevated blood cholesterol levels.

However it remains unclear to what extent dietary cholesterol raises blood cholesterol and many scientists believe that saturated fats and trans fats have a greater impact than dietary cholesterol in raising blood cholesterol.

According to the American Heart Association as long as you limit dietary cholesterol from other sources, it may be possible to include a daily egg in a healthy diet.

One large egg has about 213 milligrams (mg) of cholesterol all of which is found in the yolk.

Experts say if you are healthy limit your dietary cholesterol intake to less than 300 mg a day; if you have cardiovascular disease, diabetes or high LDL (or "bad") cholesterol, you should limit your dietary cholesterol intake to less than 200 mg a day.

So if you eat an egg and you want to limit your dietary cholesterol intake, avoid other sources of cholesterol for the rest of that day.

Now even though margarine is usually superior to butter when it comes to heart health it is nevertheless a highly processed food and some margarines are as bad as butter in some respects.

As margarine is made from vegetable oils it contains no cholesterol and is also higher in poly-unsaturated and mono-unsaturated fats than butter is.

However some margarines are processed using a method called hydrogenation, which adds unhealthy trans fats and as a rule the more solid the margarine, the more trans fats it contains.

These 'good' fats help reduce low-density lipoprotein (LDL), or "bad," cholesterol, when substituted for saturated fat.

A healthy margarine will contain less than 3 grams total of saturated plus trans fats.

Butter is made from animal fat, so it contains cholesterol and high levels of saturated fat.

If you love your butter and are healthy try organic brands but check what is added with special regard to salt and just cut down on how much you use.

At the end of the day the overall message does seem to be to eat as little highly processed food as possible and aim for a Mediterranean diet rich in fresh fruit and veggies with plenty of fish.