Favorite Food: Eggs

Next up in my Favorite Foods series is the incredible egg!

Eggs have gotten a rotten rep over the years because they are a high cholesterol food. We once thought that eating high cholesterol foods would increase the cholesterol in our body. However, that’s rarely the case. I will say in some cases it may be a wise choice to cut back on eggs in certain people with elevated blood lipids, but it’s really an individual case by case situation.

Cholesterol is affected by the fat you eat and can be affected by concentrated sweets as well. Trans fats and saturated fat increase the LDL (bad) cholesterol in your body. Trans fats also decrease the HDL (good) cholesterol which is the opposite of what we want to happen.

Monounsaturated fats decrease LDL and increase HDL while polyunsaturated fats lower both LDL and HDL. I’ll go into more detail in a future post about fats, but this is the main gist.

Eggs are a very inexpensive, nutrient dense food. They are high in protein and are a good source of other important nutrients like vitamin D, phosphorus, riboflavin and selenium. Eggs have one of the highest amounts of choline of any food. Choline is involved in memory, mood, and other brain/nervous system functions. The carotenoids lutein and zeaxanthin are two antioxidants found in an egg which help protect and maintain eye health.

I pretty much eat eggs daily. Sometimes it’s the egg whites, but either way, they are a good source of protein for me. I buy them in the big packs from Costco weekly 🙂 It’s one of those foods I really don’t get tired of eating.

Another no-brainer recipe in the Instant Pot is hard boiled eggs! Simply add 1 cup of water to the bottom of the instant pot pan. Place the rack (which comes with the Instant pot) inside and place the eggs on top. Choose high pressure on manual, 5 minutes. Natural release 5 minutes then use quick release placing a towel over the valve so steam doesn’t get everywhere, then quickly place eggs in a cold water bath. Eggs are perfectly cooked and easy to peel!

For more nutrition facts on eggs, check out this post from Real Mom Nutrition.

Nutrient Dense Foods

Healthy eating is about the choices you make everyday.  Sometimes it just takes some tweaking of what you’re already doing or making slight changes in your eating plan. If you’re trying to focus on the quality of your food, choose nutrient dense foods.  Nutrient dense foods give you the best punch of vitamins, minerals, complex carbohydrates, proteins and healthy fats.

3 Ways to Add in Real Nutrient Dense Food

1. Add mashed avocado to your sandwiches or spread it on toast. You’ll get great taste, healthy fats, fiber and many vitamins and minerals. Avocado toast is a must-try food. You won’t regret it!
2. Instead of bagged chips, crunch on an ounce of nuts. For about the same amount of calories, you get protein, healthy fats and fiber.
3. Try making your own salad dressing to avoid bottled versions made with corn syrup and additives. Whisk up your own vinaigrette with extra virgin olive oil and vinegar, or try plain yogurt with lemon juice, herbs and garlic. I’m also a fan of flavored balsamic vinegar as a dressing (pomegranate and orange are awesome)!

 

My favorite Salad Dressing Recipe atop an Apple Walnut Salad:

• 8 cups chopped red leaf lettuce
• 1 medium apple, cored and thinly sliced
• ¼ cup red onions, sliced thin
• ¾ cup walnut halves, toasted

• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
• 1 ½ tablespoons red wine vinegar or sherry vinegar
• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
•  Salt
•  freshly ground pepper
• ½ cup extra virgin olive oil

Toss together the lettuce, sliced apple, onions and walnuts.  Shake together the dressing ingredients and add to the salad.

If you’re looking for a salad dressing shaker, this one is high quality, doesn’t leak and has a convenient flip top that works great!

Keep Calm and Eat Food

Clean Eating started out meaning things like minimally processed, not packaged, whole, real food, and cooking at home.

In the door comes misinformation and a new diet is formed.

If you’re not eating clean, you must be eating dirty, toxic food.  You eat something unclean, it must sit in your colon for years until you cleanse it out.

These are trends, fads, a way for the dieting industry to create an irrational fear, rather than an even basic understanding of science and evidence.

Cold pressed juice is still concentrated sugar. However, it’s considered clean.  The long list of ingredients in the frozen yogurt you treated yourself to yesterday makes it not clean.

“Clean Eating” can be a form of disordered eating.  I’d love to see this terminology fade away as it also encourages shame and guilt when “unclean” food is eaten.  Let’s hear about that molten lava cake you thoroughly enjoyed last night, but not how bad you were yesterday because you ate “it” and how you’ll be paying for it at the gym today. If you want to change the culture, start with you. (Cue Man in the Mirror song). It’s gonna feel real good, I promise.

Lose the labels – good, bad, clean, toxic.  Educate yourself.  Make smart choices. Your goal can be an excellent diet, but don’t strive for a “perfect” diet. You can achieve good health and perform well with a balanced diet, filled with a variety of foods, and enjoyed in moderation.