HOUSTON – We often hear that we shouldn't eat eggs because they're high in cholesterol, but they're also high in protein. So, are eggs good or bad?
Eggs are rich in selenium, vitamins, zinc and iron, but the yolks contain fat and cholesterol.
Kelsey-Seybold family physician Christine Le said eggs are safe to eat daily. However, Le said, people with heart problems, strokes and high cholesterol should avoid them.
“Eggs may not be the biggest culprit for heart disease that we originally thought,” Le said. “It seems like other things -- salty foods and starches -- seem to give people a much higher risk of heart disease than we ever thought.”
A few slices of bacon will have you on your way to exceed the daily allotment of sodium, a big concern for people with high blood pressure. Waffles or white bread toast can contribute to the risk of diabetes, which can lead to heart attacks and strokes.
“With the toast, unfortunately, one in four Americans is diabetic. So, a lot of the refined starches, meaning white toast or waffles, actually could cause their sugars to get higher so that may be less healthy for them than the eggs,” Le said.
While the entire egg is fine for healthy people to consume daily, more than half the protein of an egg is found in the egg white and lower amounts of fat and cholesterol than the yolk. So, Le said healthy people can eat one whole egg daily or two egg whites per day, every day, to get good benefits.