Eggs: The Perfect Food?

For many years, do to the amount of cholesterol in eggs, the medical establishment convinced many people to limit their weekly egg consumption. Thankfully, that advice is now being turned around as we learn more about fats in general and the health benefits of consuming more eggs. While eggs may be high in fat, the majority (3 out of 5 grams) are heart-healthy monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats.

According to Dr. Anthony Komaroff, MD of the Harvard Health Letter, we should not be all that concerned with dietary cholesterol. He writes, “Since then, however, research has shown that most of the cholesterol in our body is made by our liver-it doesn’t come from cholesterol we eat. The liver is stimulated to make cholesterol primarily by saturated fat and trans fat in our diet, not dietary cholesterol. But a large egg contains little saturated fat-about 1.5 grams (g).”

In addition to heart-healthy fats, eggs also contain other nutrients that are beneficial including lutein and zeaxanthin (beneficial for eyes and eye-sight), choline which is important for brain development, nerve function, energy levels and muscle movement. Choline is also needed by the liver and a deficiency can lead to liver health problems.

If you live in an area of the world where there is less sunshine during the winter months, you’ll be happy to know that one large egg will provide you with 21% of the recommended dietary value of Vitamin D – the sunshine vitamin.

Eggs are also an excellent source of protein and are a great food to eat after a hard workout.

It’s a huge turnaround for the egg, from being vilified 20 years ago to now, being called “among the healthiest and most nutritious foods on the planet” by some health professionals and experts.

So are eggs the “perfect food?” Not quite but they do provide a great deal of nutrition. You will still need to eat a balanced diet that includes vegetables and fruit of course, but for us, it’s great news that eggs are now no longer on the “forbidden” list.

We prefer free-range eggs when we can get them, from a local farmer. You can taste the difference and many claim that these eggs are even healthier for you than supermarket purchased eggs.

Egg Salad With Greek Oregano

Of course, pure Greek oregano also has it’s own amazing health benefits (Read more here and here) when consumed regularly, either added to foods for its bold taste or drank as a “tea.” Why not combine the two for a wonderfully tasty egg salad? That’s what we do, and love to eat egg salad sandwiches a couple of times a week.

Ingredients:
6 extra large hardboiled eggs
2 Tablespoons mayonnaise
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1/2 yellow onion, finely diced
1 single branch of celery, finely diced
1 1/2 teaspoons of KirIan Greek oregano
Salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste.

Method
Add the peeled hardboiled eggs to a large bowl along with the mayo and olive oil. With a fork, mash the eggs with the mayo and oil until it’s at the consistency you desire. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well.

We prefer our egg salad to be chilled before eating, so it goes in the fridge for an hour or more.

Enjoy your egg salad with Greek oregano!

Kali orexi!

Bonus Tip For Perfect Boiled Eggs

Do you hate it when you overcook boiledeggs? We do, and we dislike the green colour in the white that often results. We’ve discovered that to get hardboiled eggs that come out perfectly (at least for extra large ones), we do the following:

Use very cold tap water to begin with, in a pot. Place the eggs in the water. Add more water if needed to completely cover the eggs. On medium high, bring the water to a boil. When the water has begun to boil, put a lid on the pot and turn the stove burner off. Let sit for 12 minutes.

After 12 minutes, empty the hot water from the pot and run cold tap water over the eggs for several minutes. This will help to stop the eggs from cooking longer, and in addition, will help to make the eggs easier to peel.