by Ramon Castellanos

Created on: September 12, 2007

There is no better, fuller, more complete protein and vitamin source in all of nature than that of eggs! It is nature's super food, but then why the bad rep? Who knows! Food myths have been circling around the dinner table of nutritionally inclined people since the dawn of time. This is not the green light to fry up a an omelet just yet though.
Cooked eggs are just simply not good for you. To understand why, let me first explain how your body consumes protein.

Protein in itself, is not what you digest, it is the building blocks of the protein, which are amino acids, that your body uses. You can classify proteins as complete or incomplete proteins. Complete proteins contain nine essential amino acids and incomplete ones contain only a few of these amino acids. Foods such as vegetables and nuts are incomplete proteins. Meats and dairy products are complete proteins.

Okay, in its raw state, the egg is a very high quality, complete protein. Therefore, it contains all of the essential amino acids that the body requires. Not to mention, in its "raw" state, the egg contains an abundance of nutrient dense vitality, which is composed of essential fatty acids as well as biotin, choline, niacin, iron, iodine, copper, zinc, riboflavin, vitamins A, D and E, phosphorous, manganese, magnesium, potassium, and sulphur. Egg yolks are also one of the rare foods that contain vitamin D. This little cocktail in a shell is obviously an incredible immune booster.

Cooking eggs destroy much of its naturally bestowed quality. It is a well known fact, that meat and all animal products digest and utilize dramatically more efficiently in their natural raw state. Here is another known fact. Cooking is a chemistry experiment because you are literally changing the chemical compound of the object in question. Research shows that cooking eggs, or any meat for that matter, produces possibly hundreds of mutations in its molecular structure, as well as undesirable protein links that have been associated with an array of health related disturbances. So basically, cooking an egg is like creating a toxin. Maybe, just maybe, that incredibly high cholesterol myth came from the cooking of eggs, which require butter or unhealthy oils . It is also a false premise that, foods containing natural raw cholesterol cause disease. That notion has been disproved by the most recent merging research on the subject. With that in mind, eggs do not have anywhere next to the amount of cholesterol that has been associated with them.

The body that is maintained with a healthy diet high in fruits and vegetables, while also partaking in a moderate level of exercise, very efficiently burns off cholesterol. Bodybuilders who train hard, have considerably higher levels of good cholesterol. Research lets us know that average cholesterol of 76 body builders, each consuming 90 eggs a week, to be 182 mg/dl. That is under the recommended 200 mg/dl. It is also a well excepted fact that healthy, organically fed chicken, basically do not produce salmonella infested eggs. So, if your eggs our organic, do not worry.

It is true that consuming lots of egg whites can create a biotin deficiency, but that is aside from the issue of consuming whole eggs, since the yolk contains biotin. So, if you want to improve your health by giving your body a super food that helps maintain youth in every cell, start swallowing eggs like Rocky Balboa.

Recommended amount of eggs:
(Remember this is substituting other animal proteins)

4-6 a week for sedentary people.
14-20 eggs a week for active athletes.
25-40 eggs a week for those heavy in muscle.

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