Discussion Board

I've been reading with great interest, your discussion on two other threads about oil and milk. As the cook in our family, I, frankly, find it harder to work without eggs than I do without milk and oil. I do substitute for eggs with water, applesauce, egg replacer, but there are a few dishes where being able to safely use egg substitute would make my life easier and open up our diet to several savory recipes I miss.

So...why not eggs?

Hatshepsut

P.S. We are especially interested in the McDougall Diet for health (rather than weight) reasons. My husband is a cancer survivor.

P.S.S. I did a search on this site for "eggs" but didn't find a thorough discussion of reasons for omitting eggs. If this has been addressed before, I would appreciate being directed to the information.

Hi,



Please read my last response in the Oil thread as it addresses the bigger issue here that you and others are asking.

In regard to eggs, beyond the points I made in the Oil thread, the lenient American Heart Association says that anyone at risk for heart disease should not consume more than 200 mgs of cholesterol a day. When this AHA diet was used as a control group in studies, they were not able to stop the progression of heart disease or reverse it. Not a good recommendation. Half way measures produce half way results.

But is that what everyone is looking for?

I hope not.

The only diets ever published that were able to document that reversal of heart disease kept total cholesterol below 5 mgs per day. The diet they are now using in their studies on cancer are cholesterol free.

One egg, (even the new improved lower cholesterol eggs) have 225 mgs of cholesterol, per egg. That is more than the ineffective AHA diet recommends in one day and 45x more than was used in the reversal diet.

In 1981 I graduated Culinary School and worked as a chef for many years. I have never ever missed eggs in any cooking or recipe. There are so many 100s if not 1000s of healthy recipes that contain no egg, then why would anyone want to include a food that would contain a known risk factor especially if they are not well, especially if they have known heart disease?

More important though, are the points I just made in the Oil thread, that are more philosophical but applicable.

Wishing You The BEST of Health

In Health
Jeff Novick, MS, RD

PS you should try some of Mary McDougall recipes. I do not think you will be missing eggs anymore.

Dr. McDougall wrote a general article about eggs in his March 2005 newsletter, also:

http://www.drmcdougall.com/misc/2005nl/ ... ereggs.htm

Thanks to both of you for the helpful information. I appreciate your taking the time to help me understand the rationale for totally eliminating eggs from our diet.

Hatshepsut

Just to add to why eggs are harmful from Dr. Greger.

The Harvard physicians study followed 20,000 doctors for 20 years and those that ate just one egg a day had significant increase in all cause mortality. Furthermore, in the Canadian Journal of Cardiology, David Spence (director of stroke prevention/atherosclerosis research center), David Jenkins (the inventor of the glycemic index) and Jean Davignon (director of atherosclerosis research group) posted a review on eggs claiming that the egg industry has been downplaying the health risks of eggs through misleading advertisements. As soon as you eat one egg, you expose your body to several hours worth of oxidative stress, inflammation of ones arteries, endothelium impairment, and increased susceptibility of LDL cholesterol to oxidize

Chef Jeff, thanks for your very thorough answer. In regard to wishing people the BEST of health, it seems that many want to compromise--they want to enjoy "moderate health." I suppose that means eating a little pizza and a little ice cream and having only a little heart problem....

Not me! I appreciate your guidance in regard to this. Extreme measures produce extreme results!

Very interesting! I would like to know if we have any results in regard to those who ingest a glass of milk (or its equivalent in other dairy products) daily.