Eggs are not bad for you, but egg yolks are high in cholesterol. The latest nutritional analysis by the USDA shows that a large egg has about 212 milligrams of cholesterol with 210 milligrams in one large egg yolk. These values are much lower than the previous value of 274 milligrams in USDA’s Agriculture Handbook 8-1 from 1976. This is interesting since we used to advise people to keep their blood cholesterol under 250. Now we recommend that persons keep their blood cholesterol under 200. The American Heart Association recommends low saturated fat, low trans fat eating plans to prevent heart disease.
However, just limiting egg yolks does not prevent heart attacks or cause weight loss. I would recommend limiting animal products especially red meats like beef or lamb and packaged foods with hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated vegetable oils which may contain trans fat. The best plan is to buy food in the freshest form possible and cook from scratch at home. That way, you can decide what kind of oil (olive and peanut are best), how much oil, salt, and sugar to add to the food you eat.
You should be more afraid of any diet that tells you to eat one food for the diet to succeed in weight loss. There is no one magic food that causes weight loss or burns fat more efficiently. There have been cabbage soup diets, grapefruit diets, vinegar and lecithin diets, fruit diets and egg diets. The list goes on and on. Any meal plan will achieve weight loss if it is lower in calories than how much you currently eat. However, the weight loss eating plan that succeeds in the long term is the plan that teaches you to permanently change your eating habits by eating less and exercising more.
