The old egg debate

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kaytee1330
kaytee1330 Posts: 4 Member
in Food and Nutrition
I logged two eggs for breakfast this morning and noticed that sent me over my daily intake goal for cholesterol, according to the “Heart Healthy” goals. I recently found out I am pre-diabetic so my doctor has recommended a low carb diet, however I also take a med for high cholesterol. Can I manage a low carb, heart healthy diet that includes eggs, or should I altogether eliminate eggs from my diet?

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  • tomcustombuilder
    tomcustombuilder Posts: 1,625 Member
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    That a slippery slope for sure my blood panel showed 220 total chelestrol however when I went to Life Screening to get all my arteries scanned everything was totally clear.
  • kaytee1330
    kaytee1330 Posts: 4 Member
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    I had a similar screening that showed clear arteries and the chance of a cardiovascular event at less than 3% over the next 10 years. However, BP, cholesterol, and A1C weren’t ideal.
  • neanderthin
    neanderthin Posts: 9,921 Member
    edited March 9
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    You could move to France, they consume the most amount of dietary cholesterol but have the lowest incident of heart disease on the planet, some PhD's think it's in the water, they have good water that flushes out the bad cholesterol and cleans out arteries. Just kidding. Logic is your friend. :D
  • claireychn074
    claireychn074 Posts: 1,340 Member
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    neanderthin wrote: »
    You could move to France, they consume the most amount of dietary cholesterol but have the lowest incident of heart disease on the planet, some PhD's think it's in the water, they have good water that flushes out the bad cholesterol and cleans out arteries. Just kidding. Logic is your friend. :D

    I don’t think I’m particularly gullible but I was about to say “water? Wow, really?” 🙄
  • neanderthin
    neanderthin Posts: 9,921 Member
    edited March 9
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    Yeah, I'm not expecting very many people to get that anecdote. It goes back to Ansel Keys cholesterol hypothesis where he postulated that cholesterol and saturated fat was the cause of heart disease. France wasn't one of the countries on his pie chart, he left that one out along with a dozen others, but that's a different story.

    Because heart disease was the lowest of any recorded country they (Doctors who supported the cholesterol hypothesis) coined the term the "French Paradox" and said originally that it was probably the resveratrol found in the wine that the French participated in daily.

    Anyway to get to my point, sorry, in order for resveratrol to have any health benefits it appears that one would need to be consuming around 300 mg's a day for the active mechanism to have any effect. In order to consume 300mg's a person would need to drink over 500 6oz glasses of wine a day, so, so much for that theory which leaves the other major component in wine, water. I know, crazy and why I said I was just joking. :)
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 32,166 Member
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    mtaratoot wrote: »
    Nutrition science is still very young; however the most recent guidance is that DIETARY cholesterol doesn't have a significant impact on SERUM cholesterol. Saturated fats appear to increase serum cholesterol.

    OP, this.

    There's some squabbling still about whether saturated fat is the biggest deal, or carbs, or ultra-processed foods, or mystery rays shot from alien UFOs, or . . . hmm, stuff. But it's pretty well accepted that dietary cholesterol isn't a key factor.

    As neanderthin says, common sense: Obviously, you want to keep things in balance. But you don't need to eliminate reasonable amounts of eggs from your diet entirely.

    Many dietary interventions are believed to be helpful for reducing serum cholesterol, although there's still some squabbling (research disagreements) about which interventions are best.

    Mainstream advice seems to be eating plenty of veggies and whole grains for fiber, micronutrients, and beneficial phytochemicals; lean protein sources; mono- and poly-unsaturated fats in reasonable balance with saturated fats plus Omega-3 fats in the mix rather than just Omega-6. Also mainstream is to limit sodium, saturated fats, processed meats, and added sugars. Some of that will also be good for your blood sugar, and regular exercise will be good for both cholesterol level and blood sugar.

    OTOH, some advocates say that very low carb (keto) or carnivore diets will be more helpful for serum cholesterol reduction. (The latter would argue that LDL particle size is important.)

    As mtaratoot says, nutrition science is still advancing, but this is more or less where we are now IMU. But I'm just an interested amateur, not a scientist, medical professional or registered dietition.

    For me, someone without (AFAIK) familial hypercholesterolemia (genetic inclination to high cholesterol), simply reaching a healthy weight brought my total cholesterol down, and my LDL cholesterol way down. That happened for me about 25 pounds down, around half the total amount of weight I needed to lose to be at a good weight for me in the normal BMI range. Eating a well-rounded, healthy diet brought my HDL up, but somewhat more gradually.
    tomcustombuilder wrote: »
    That a slippery slope for sure my blood panel showed 220 total chelestrol however when I went to Life Screening to get all my arteries scanned everything was totally clear.

    Most doctors these days are paying much more attention to LDL and HDL/LDL ratios than to total cholesterol. My total cholesterol on last test was 198, but a big chunk of that was HDL, and ratio at 2.8 was considered well within the low range (less than 3.6 is considered "low" for my demographic by this lab).

    If someone has high total cholesterol, but most of it is HDL, the mainstream belief is generally that that's a good thing (but there's some research dispute about whether it can be too high). I suspect that if you're on a cholesterol medication, your LDL is high, and that there's no basis for worrying about reducing HDL (probably more enthusiasm for increasing it).

    I'm not sure, but I suspect that it's also possible to have "bad" blood test numbers but relatively clear arteries, because there's a lot of variation among humans, plus blood tests are point in time and atherosclerosis is a cumulative effect. If someone were in that position - high cholesterol and clear arteries - I wouldn't assume their strategies would necessarily be good guidance for others.
  • tomcustombuilder
    tomcustombuilder Posts: 1,625 Member
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    You can have clear carotid arteries but problematic aortic arteries, for those you need an angiogram or an MRI where Carotid just a simple ultrasound, to have confidence in your lack of Atherosclerosis you need both.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 27,898 Member
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    I shut off all the MFP "show diary food insights." It's helpful for me to track carbs, fiber, fat, and protein, so that's what I look at.

    People with medical concerns might find it beneficial to ask for a referral to registered dietitian or diabetes counselor. When I was anemic, I worked with a hematologist.

    https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10500643/is-there-any-way-to-turn-off-passive-aggressive-mfp-messages-when-i-log-food

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