This is the second in a three post series on the “Incredible, edible EGG”. In part one, we took a tour of the grocery store and deciphered just what all those different labels on the egg cartons mean. If you missed it, you can check it out here. Today we’re going to look at a couple of common misconceptions surrounding eggs.
DON’T JUDGE AN EGG BY ITS COVER
A common misconception is that brown shelled eggs are healthier or more natural than their white shelled counterparts. The truth is that shell colour has nothing to do with nutrition, but is simply dictated by the breed of hen that laid that egg.
Who else just found out today that chickens have ear lobes?!
Consuming Eggs Will Raise Your Cholesterol Level
Eggs have gotten a bad wrap because of the cholesterol contained in their yolks. Many people have been led to believe that eggs should be avoided, or strictly limited, particularly if you have high cholesterol levels.
Cholesterol is often seen as a “bad guy”. In actuality, cholesterol plays a vital role in our health. We need cholesterol to make healthy cell membranes. It is also necessary for the production of steroid hormones like cortisol, estrogen and testosterone. Cholesterol is also the main building block for Vitamin D (for more about the importance of adequate Vitamin D, check out this blog post).
Because of all the important roles played by cholesterol, the body works to ensure that there is always adequate cholesterol present. Cholesterol is produced in the body by the liver. When we take in more cholesterol through our diet, the liver decreases the amount of cholesterol it produces to keep levels within normal range. If we are eating less cholesterol, the liver revs up the cholesterol making machine. When we understand this, we can see that a healthy body will maintain fairly consistent cholesterol levels. The source of the cholesterol (dietary or self-made) may change, but the levels remain fairly constant.
In short, consuming eggs regularly does not impact blood cholesterol levels to any significant degree. (1)
Ok – if all that is true, how come my cholesterol levels are high?
You may be surprised to hear that cholesterol is a healing agent in the body and acts as an antioxidant. So when our cholesterol levels are high, it means that the body is recruiting this healing cholesterol to try and deal with some kind of inflammation or damage. Identifying and removing the cause of this inflammation (say by working with a Nutritional Therapy Practitioner) should be the goal, instead of immediately attacking the cholesterol levels with pharmaceuticals.(2)
I could go on and on about cholesterol and it’s role in keeping us healthy. If you are interested in learning more, I highly recommend the book Put Your Heart In Your Mouth by Dr. Natasha Campbell-Mcbride.
In the last post of this three part “Eggstavaganza”, we are finally going to dig into the nutrient value of the humble egg. Stay tuned!
SOURCES
Kim, J.E.; Campbell, W.W. Dietary Cholesterol Contained in Whole Eggs Is Not Well Absorbed and Does Not Acutely Affect Plasma Total Cholesterol Concentration in Men and Women: Results from 2 Randomized Controlled Crossover Studies. Nutrients 2018, 10, 1272.
Campbell-McBride MD, N. (2016). Put Your Heart In Your Mouth. Mediform Publishing.
In The Big Fat Surprise, Nina Teicholz takes an in depth look into the nutrition research that has guided our way of eating for decades. The low fat/high carbohydrate diet that we, as a population, have been advised to follow for decades is not working. We are more unhealthy now than ever before. By following the science, Teicholz discovers that the foods we’ve been taught to deny ourselves – meat, cheese, butter, lard could actually be the very foods that bring us back to health. Through an exhaustive look at thousands of scientific studies and conducting countless interviews, she shows us that the diet advice we’ve been urged to follow for years is based on little more than weak science that is often manipulated to achieve the researcher’s or study funder’s desired outcome.
For decades researchers have demonized saturated fats, largely due to the fact that these fats can increase a person’s LDL cholesterol. The Framingham Study’s follow-up results showed that, of all the measurable lipids and lipoproteins, HDL cholesterol has the largest impact on cardiovascular risk (Teicholz, 2014, pg.162) and is a better predictor of heart attack than LDL. Interestingly, saturated fats are the only food known to actually increase levels of HDL cholesterol! (Teichrob, 2014, pg.334)
Another interesting fact I learned about saturated fats is that the type of LDL they increase (light, buoyant LDL) is not associated with an increase in heart attack risk. In fact, it is the small, dense type of LDL that has been shown to be linked to increased heart disease. An increase in this type of LDL is seen in diets higher in carbohydrates.
Sure, we have finally been told that trans fats are unhealthy. What should have been a boon to our society’s health with the banning of these trans fats though, has led to the creation of more “Franken-fats” in the form of interesterification, genetically modified soybeans and “fat” replacers. Industry continues to mess with nature and the chemistry of fats to solve a problem that didn’t exist 100 years ago when we ate the fat provided to us by nature. Once again, the public is being used, unwittingly, as guinea pigs in these experiments where the health implications are unknown. Companies and chemists have gone to so much work to replace saturated fats and at what cost? It’s apparent through reading this book, that the cost has been the health of a great many people. This cost will only continue to escalate unless we can break the stigma surrounding saturated fat. Teicholz’s book sheds light on this and I found that it highlights the evidence surrounding what Nutritional Therapy Practitioners tell their clients – that good quality, well sourced fats are vital to optimal nutrition and health.
I must admit, I found the first part of this book to be a bit dry and hard to get through. Perhaps it is because I have already read a fair bit about Ancel Keys and his infamous “Seven Countries Study”. If you have never heard of Ancel Keys, I urge you to look into him. Long story short, the results of his “Seven Countries Study” confirmed (in his warped sense of research) the relationship of saturated fat consumption to increased heart disease. But (and this is a BIG BUT), it turns out that the devilish Mr. Keys cherry picked only the countries that, when graphed, appeared to prove his hypothesis. Once ALL the countries are graphed, his correlation falls apart. It is this flawed methodology that has dictated what we’ve been told to eat for the last half a century! So, although it takes a bit of effort to push through all the review of the studies, it really is worth your while. I enjoyed the second half of the book much more, particularly the information about cholesterol.
The big takeaway I have from this book is just how infuriating and frightening it is to realize how research outcomes are manipulated, ignored or coerced through funding. People’s egos and company bottom lines have affected the health of millions for several generations. I do think that we are making some progress. The horrible effects of sugar are known to a lot more people today than even a few years ago, but the benefits of saturated fats have yet to hit the mainstream population. The information IS out there, but only if you choose to seek it out. People who aren’t passionate about nutrition and health still rely on the guidelines based on weak science. Nutritional Therapy Practitioners have our work cut out for us to try and shift this school of thought, but I believe that as more of us share our knowledge, others will be empowered to question the advice they have been given for decades.
My Rating – 4 out of 5 Peaks
REFERENCES
Teicholz, N. (2014). The Big Fat Surprise. Simon and Schuster Paperbacks.
I know, I know..a mayonnaise recipe to celebrate Mexican independence is an odd choice, but really EVERY day is a good day to celebrate this easy(I mean, ridiculously easy)condiment recipe. It’s chock full of healthy fats and missing all the gunk found in most store bought brands. I also use this mayo as a base for a coleslaw dressing that I serve with carnitas…so there is a bit of a Mexican link after all!
Making your own mayo can seem daunting when you read recipes telling you that you must drizzle the oil in slowly, all while whisking like madman or your mayo won’t come together and you’ll be left with a soupy, oily mess. I can barely pat my head and rub my tummy at the same time, so this all sounds like a disaster in the making.
Enter the immersion blender… with this nifty tool, you can have easy, no fuss, no mess mayo in seconds. And, it’s a pretty cool party trick to boot! I have heard that high speed blenders and mixers can also be used – but I have never tried it this way. If you get successful mayo from either of these methods, let me know in the comments!
So what is mayo? Mayo is an emulsion – or a mixture of two things that can’t normally be combined (like oil and water). This coming together of two different worlds requires the use of an emulsifier to keep them from separating. In mayonnaise, egg yolks play this role. Yolks contain lecithin, a fat emulsifier, which keeps the oil in tiny little droplets and prevents them from collecting into larger drops that will separate out of the mixture. The mustard also helps out as an emulsifier in this recipe. You can opt to leave it out, but I use to add a bit more stability and some extra zip to the flavour.
Avocado or olive oil are two healthy fats that can be easily whipped up into a delicious mayo. You want to avoid vegetable oils, not just in mayo-making, but in general. Oils, such as canola, corn and soy are generally highly processed and damaged during manufacturing, are often “deodorized” and bleached to hide signs of rancidity and can cause oxidative damage and inflammation. Yuck, no thank you!
I opt for avocado oil, as I find it has a more neutral flavour than olive oil. There are some decent avocado oil and olive oil mayos on the market. If you can find one that you like that doesn’t have any unnecessary ingredients in it, by all means, feel free! I’ve found that I much prefer the flavour of my homemade version!
Once you have the basic mayo down, you can add all sorts of extras to create a variety of dressings and spreads. I put a few of my faves in the recipe comments, but let me know what fun variations you come up with!
Now…on with the MAYO!
Print Recipe
Mayonnaise
A quick and easy recipe for a healthier version of this versatile condiment!
Make sure to test that your blender head will fit into the mouth of the container you choose BEFORE you add the ingredients.
Crack egg into the bottom of a mason jar or high sided container.
Add all other ingredients to jar.
With one hand holding the jar, place head of immersion blender over the yolk of the egg and turn the blender on, keeping the blades immersed in the liquid. You will see the color start to change to the white color of mayo immediately.
Slowly move the blender up and down and side to side (keeping the blades immersed) until all the ingredients are incorporated and the mixture has thickened to the consistency of mayonnaise.
Taste and adjust seasoning if desired.
Will keep, sealed in the refrigerator, for 3 to 5 days
Recipe Notes
Variations (per 1 cup of mayonnaise)
Garlic Aioli - Mix in 1 to 2 finely minced garlic cloves
Chipotle Mayo - Mix in a small amount of sauce from a jar of chipotles in adobo (start with 2 teaspoonfsul and work up, depending on taste). Alternately, you could add mayo to a blender with 2 chipotle peppers from the jar and blend until smooth. Add 1 teaspoon of lime juice and adjust to taste
Dilly Tartar Sauce - Mix in 1/2 a cup finely diced dill pickles, 2 teaspoons lemon juice, 1 teaspoon onion powder and a tablespoon of fresh dill
Nearly 50 percent of people worldwide are deficient in Vitamin D. This number is higher amongst those of us who live in more northern climates. Vitamin D, or the sunshine vitamin, is actually a steroid hormone that our bodies make in response to ultraviolet light (UVB specifically).
The UVB rays from sunlight trigger the production of Vitamin D3 (cholecalciferol) in our skin. This compound must then go through additional steps in both the liver and kidneys to become the active form of vitamin D3, which is calcitriol. Being able to manufacture our own vitamin D seems like a pretty nifty trick right? Why then are nearly 50 percent of us deficient in vitamin D?
First, a little history lesson. Way back in the early 1600’s, the world was undergoing an industrial revolution. People were beginning to live in large cities, with housing being built close together and pollution from coal burning creating a haze in the air. It was around this time that a disease called Rickets began appearing in children. Rickets is a bone deforming disease that we now know is caused by a Vitamin D deficiency. The connection between the lack of sun exposure and Rickets was probably first made in the 1800’s by Polish physician Jedrzej Sniadecki.(1) He noticed that children in populated areas such as Warsaw, receiving little sunlight due to narrow alleyways, pollution and tight living quarters, had a higher incidence of rickets that those living in rural areas outside of Warsaw. In response to this observation, Sniadecki recommended in his book, On the Physical Education of Children (1822), that children “should be carried about in the open air especially in the sun, the direct action of which on our bodies must be regarded as one of the most efficient methods for the prevention and the cure of this disease.”(2)
Although most of Vitamin D’s fame comes from it’s role in aiding in the absorption of calcium and creating healthy bones, it is actually involved in a large number of important functions in our bodies. It plays a role in both immune function and control of inflammation. Therefore, it may be crucial in the management of both autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. It helps to regulate the release of a neurotransmitter called serotonin, which is important for both mental health and digestion. It is essential for healing, as it helps control cell growth. Vitamin D’s control over cell proliferation, along with its anti-inflammatory effects may have protective effects against many cancers. Scientists continue to study Vitamin D and its benefits to our health. The role of Vitamin D deficiency in heart disease, mental health, obesity and Parkinson’s disease are just a few of the many areas being studied.
So back to the original question – why are over 50 percent of us deficient in this important nutrient? The obvious answer is that we are not getting enough sunshine! There is a reason it is called the “Sunshine Vitamin”! Along with living at a higher latitude, our jobs and hobbies (I’m looking at you Netflix) are keeping us out of the sunshine. When we do venture out, we slather on the sunscreen, afraid of skin cancer and (yikes!) wrinkles. It is also difficult to get anywhere near enough Vitamin D from the food we eat. It can be found in the oil of fish livers (think cod liver oil) and there is a small amount in egg yolks and fatty fish, like salmon, sardines and mackerel. Plant foods, like mushrooms and leafy greens, contain a very small amount of Vitamin D2. It is thought, however, that this plant derived from of vitamin D doesn’t seem to perform all the functions that animal derived D3 does. Many foods, such as homogenized milk and breakfasts cereals are fortified with Vitamin D. Even if you aren’t avoiding these processed and packaged foods, in order to get your daily requirement of Vitamin D, you would have to consume an unfeasible amount of these foods!
So Who is at risk?
Digestive Issues – Even if we could consume enough vitamin D in our diets, we are assuming that it is all going to be absorbed. The health of your gut is going to influence how much of the vitamin you absorb and, let’s face it, many of us have at least some digestive issues. Issues like celiac disease, Crohn’s disease, disorders (or absence) of the gallbladder can all reduce vitamin D absorption. These efficacy of vitamin D supplements are also affected by these digestive issues.
Obesity – Vitamin D is a fat soluble vitamin and is stored in fat tissue. Obesity means we have more fat in which to store that Vitamin D, making it less easily accessible when needed.
Darker skin tones – Higher amounts of the pigment melanin in dark skin tones acts as a natural sunscreen, reducing the amount of Vitamin D produced
Increased Age – Lower amounts of the precursor to Vitamin D, skin changes and more time spent indoors increases the risk of deficiency in older individuals
Time of year and location – UVB rays are weaker in the northern latitudes, so weak in fact that there are large periods of the year (4 to 6 months) when one just can’t make enough Vitamin D from sun exposure alone. (3)
How do I know if I’m deficient?
The symptoms of Vitamin D deficiency are often so subtle that you have no idea you are deficient. I know that I had no clue, until my blood test came back! The effects of vitamin D deficiency are varied and we rarely make the connection between these signals and a lack of vitamin D. They may include:
Fatigue
Bone pain
Muscle or Joint pain
Frequent Illness
Low mood or irritability
Anxiety
So what can you do?
Advocate
Ask your physician for a blood test. Vitamin D levels are not something that most physicians will order with your yearly bloodwork. Because there are no overt signs of deficiency, I think it is important to know what you level is – especially if you fall into one of the groups who are more at risk for a deficiency.
Conventional “normal” ranges can vary depending on the lab conducting the test. They are also based on the average population which, if we are being honest, is not all that healthy. Generally, the “normal” range will be quite wide (30ng/ml to 100ng/ml). But this normal range doesn’t necessarily reflect what is healthy, only what is common. Functional references ranges are narrower and reflect a level that is optimal to prevent dysfunction and, eventually, disease. A functional optimal range for vitamin D is much narrower, perhaps at 60ng/ml to 80ng/ml. When disease is present, such as with heart disease or cancer, the optimal range may be higher.
Supplement
Most of us living in northern latitudes are not going to be able to get all the vitamin D we need year round. A high quality supplement can help us keep our levels up throughout the year.
The amount of vitamin D to supplement will vary depending on your current blood level, health status and sun exposure. As always, it is important to have a discussion with your health care provider to determine an appropriate dose and have your levels monitored periodically. Also, always…ALWAYS consult your doctor or pharmacist before starting any supplementation, in order to rule out drug interactions or contraindications!
As vitamin D is fat soluble, there is a risk (although extremely small) of toxicity, because excess can be stored in the body. It is generally only seen in those who take extremely high doses for long periods of time.
Sunlight
Overall, sun exposure really is the best source of vitamin D, as we don’t have to rely on adequate digestion for it to reach our bloodstream and get to work! It is a bit of a balancing act, especially if you are like me and go from bright white to lobster red in the blink of an eye. A general rule of thumb is for the time of sun exposure to be 50% of what it would take to cause a mild sunburn (slight pinkness 24 hours later). After this time, slather on the safe sunscreen, cover up or seek shade.(1) For me, that’s probably about 5 minutes in the mid-day summer sun! The more skin that is exposed, the more vitamin D those factories in your skin will produce. I would recommend protecting the face with sunscreen or a hat, as it’s surface area is relatively small and will produce only a small amount of vitamin D and the skin there is more prone to damage from sun exposure.
The other benefit of getting Vitamin D from the sun? Toxicity is not an issue. There are compounds made along with the Vitamin D that will limit any excess production, protecting us from toxicity. The body is a wondrous thing, isn’t it?
References
Wacker, M., & Holick, M. F. (2013). Sunlight and Vitamin D: A global perspective for health. Dermato-endocrinology, 5(1), 51–108. https://doi.org/10.4161/derm.24494
Mozołowski W. Jędrzej Sniadecki (1768-1838) on the Cure of Rickets. Nature. 1939;143:121. doi: 10.1038/143121a0
I’ve been lucky, I think I’ve only ever experienced heartburn once in my life. It woke me from a deep sleep and had me frantically digging through my kitchen cupboards at 3am, looking for some sort of relief. We aren’t milk drinkers, so I couldn’t try that old remedy. I had a surprisingly empty medicine cabinet for a pharmacist, only some first aid cream and bandages. No Tums, no Gaviscon, no aBISMALly pink Pepto-Bismal. I decided to use my half awake, “sciency” brain and tackle the acid with its known nemesis – a base. Baking soda to the rescue. I mixed it with some water and took it like a shot. It was, well, it was awful. Not something I’d want to have to do regularly. It took a little time, but the fire finally subsided enough for me to crawl back into bed, bedside my blissfully unaware husband, praying that the inferno wouldn’t return.
For many people, the discomfort of heartburn, indigestion or reflux is a daily occurrence. Just walk through the stomach section of any pharmacy and you’ll see just how prevalent these issues are. In my years in the pharmacy, prescriptions for acid reflux medications flew off the shelves. It was an equal opportunity Rx too! Men, women, young and old. Everyone needed their “stomach pills”. But just because these tummy troubles are common, does not mean they are normal. Instead, they are a sign that there is something amiss and your body is letting you know that all is NOT normal.
Why are there so many “fire breathers” around these days? Why do so many people produce such vast quantities of stomach acid that they need to be on a medication to control it? The truth is, they don’t. Over-production of stomach acid is a very rare condition (Zollinger-Ellison Syndrome) and it only affects about 1 in 1 million people. There can be a couple of factors at play here. One is that certain dietary and lifestyle habits can relax the Lower Esophageal Sphincter (LES). The LES is the gateway between the esophagus and the stomach and it is meant to stay tightly closed to prevent stomach acid from coming into contact with the unprotected tissue of the esophagus. When you only experience symptoms once in awhile, simply changing some habits and avoiding those foods that trigger your symptoms will often suffice.
The most common cause though, the ROOT cause, of these symptoms is actually insufficient stomach acid. Yes, wrap your brain around that. The current recommended remedies for heartburn and indigestion not only fail to treat the cause of the symptoms, but contribute to them and many more problems. This is the concept behind the book Why Stomach Acid Is Good For You by Johnathan V. Wright M.D. and Lane Lenard Ph.D.
Wright and Lane propose that it is a lack of stomach acid that causes heartburn, indigestion and GERD and to properly treat the cause, the acid must be replaced. Drugs prescribed for these conditions turn off production and decrease stomach acid even further. They appear to help because they cover up the symptoms (your body’s way of messaging you that something is wrong), but they are actually potentiating the problem. So why is low stomach acid a bad thing, if it makes us feels so much better?
Stomach acid plays a vital role in digestion. One of the key components of the gastric juices is HCl (hydrochloric acid). HCl is necessary to break proteins down into amino acids, which can then be absorbed. Many other nutrients require an acidic environment for absorption as well. Stomach acid is also the starter pistol or trigger for almost every other event in the digestive sequence. Without stomach acid, digestion functions about as well as car on empty.
The acidity of the gastric juices makes the stomach a sterile environment. Stomach acid kills pathogens that we ingest with our food. As well as protecting us from infection, this acidic environment prevents bacteria from surviving in the stomach and interfering with the digestion of certain nutrients. The negative consequences of low stomach acid continue to affect our digestion all the way down the line. I discuss the consequences (ad nauseam) in THIS blog post, if you want to get into the nitty gritty!
I found it interesting to learn that the cells that produce HCl (parietal cells) decrease as we age. Much of the malnutrition we see in senior citizens maybe caused by low stomach acid and treatable with acid supplementation. The authors discuss how nutrient deficiencies caused by low stomach acid may contribute to several conditions from depression all the way to rosacea. Besides nutrient deficiences, the book also looks at how low stomach acid leads to large, undigested protein molecules. These can make their way through the lining of the small intestine (made “leaky” by the damage of bacteria growing in the low acidic environment of the stomach). These large food molecules enter the bloodstream. They are not broken down enough to be recognized by the immune system, are tagged as foreign and attacked. Overtime, this immune system activation can cause food sensitivities and contribute to the development of autoimmune conditions.
Although I did find the authors somewhat wordy and repetitive, there was a lot of good information in this book. The link between low stomach acid and the myriad of problems it may contribute to makes common sense, even if there are few quality studies to support some of these claims. (I mean, a drug company is not likely to fund a study that may show their product is unnecessary at best and harmful at worst!) As it was published in 2001, it would be nice if there were a newer edition of the book to highlight any current information in this area. I don’t know that I can agree wholeheartedly with some of the authors’ ideas that low stomach acid may be the out right cause of certain diseases. I certainly can agree that it could be a contributing factor and, as such, it is prudent to optimize stomach acid and digestion in all conditions.
Do you have signs of low stomach acid? Work with a Functional Nutritional Therapy Practitioner to learn how to better support your digestion!
Please note, that if you are currently on a medication that lowers stomach acid, I am NOT recommending that you stop this treatment. Seek out a Functional Nutritional Therapy Practitioner (like moi), who can help you make some dietary and lifestyle changes that support digestion. Once those are in place, you can talk to your physician (or ideally your FNTP and physician can work together!) to discuss whether you need the medication, create a plan to wean off the medication and possibly start some acid supplementation, if needed, all while monitoring your symptoms.
