Now it's an egg a day to reduce risk of stroke

Eating up to one egg a day has no association with coronary heart disease (CHD) but does reduce the risk of stroke by 12%, a meta-analysis has suggested. 

Remember when eggs were demonised as cholesterol-promoting bombs and the traditional bacon and egg breakfast was even more soundly derided? Of course you do and what a load of rubbish that was, based on seriously flawed research and incomplete understanding of the real culprits in coronary heart disease. Despite the evidence that is now overwhelmingly in favour of including plenty of eggs and healthy fats in our diet and of reducing the sugars and grains, it’s going to take a very long time to switch the ‘eggs and fat promote cholesterol and cholesterol is bad’ mentality. 

As far as eggs are concerned, this latest study, suggesting the benefits of an egg a day is hardly new. I blogged about the positive power of eggs in 2013, and have no hesitation in repeating myself…

Consumption of eggs is not associated with an increased risk of heart disease or stroke! An analysis by the prestigious BMJ (British Medical Journal) of eight studies and more than half a million participants, might hopefully remove the stigma from the much-maligned egg. What led us to swear off eggs was set in motion when a long-ago researcher fed cholesterol-containing eggs to rabbits (obligatory herbivores). Now almost 100 years since the original research, it’s interesting to reflect that Anitschkov never concluded from his experiments that cholesterol in the diet caused atherosclerosis in humans. But somehow his simplified work entered the pop science mainstream, setting a whole cholesterol-reduction industry in motion and spawned several generations of consumers studiously avoiding a God-given, nutrient-laden, healthy food choice! Well, let’s be more specific here ... the God-given eggs laid by wide-roaming, omnivorous hens, free to eat snails, bugs, grain and greens are what I’m referring to. The alternative eggs, yolks potentially coloured by additives in the feed, from battery hens, forced into laying non-stop, don’t cut the mustard. 

If you’re in any doubt about the need to buy organically raised and fed produce, check out the movie Samsara and while you’re out looking for good eggs from chooks that are free to roam, consider eating the shells too. Latest calcium and other mineral-enriched additive from the food industry is ... guess what? You got it, straight from organic egg shells. Chuck em into the blender with your fruit and yoghurt smoothie.

Can the diet sodas!

It’s official - “zero-calorie”, “no-calorie”, “low-calorie”, “no-sugar”, “low-sugar”, in fact all those heavily-promoted products that make you believe you can have your sweet cake without worry about weight gain, create exactly the same metabolic effects as their sugar-laden counterparts! In fact, those individuals consuming “diet-sodas” experienced identical metabolic changes to those folk consuming the regular sugar-heavy variety of soda, exhibiting excessive weight gain, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and stroke! How can that possibly be you ask?

Apparently it’s simple - consuming foods which are artificially sweetened perpetuates your craving for sweet things generally and your overall sugar intake is not reduced! What’s worse, the artificial sweetener sucralose (Splenda) is now tagged as requiring “caution” with its use, while the longest running study on another artificial sweetener, aspartame, links its use to development of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and leukemia.

And sodas don’t even quench your thirst! While we're on the topic, fruit juices are now in the spot light,with Harvard researchers suggesting they are equally as problematic as sodas in their contribution to diabetes. No doubt about it, purified water is the best thirst-quenching drink, best cell-hydrater, best detoxification-support-act and the best water purifier is Wellness Filter! And while you're at it, those same Harvard researchers say that eating the whole fruit can reduce your diabetes risk!