I am often asked if eggs are good for diabetics, and this question is usually phrased in different ways.
- Should I avoid eggs if I have high blood sugar?
- Will eggs give me a heart attack?
- How many eggs should I eat?
Eggs are full of nutrients which diabetics need
The yolk
Eggs are one of the most nutritious foods that you can eat. They are a superfood, a nature’s multivitamin. They contain lots of vitamins including vitamins A, B2, B5 and B12.
Eggs are a good source of selenium. They also contain smaller amounts of lots of other nutrients like potassium, iron, manganese and folate.
Eggs are one of the best sources of choline. Choline is converted into a compound that helps to transmit messages around the body through the nerves. It is also necessary for memory, brain function and contraction of muscles.
Eggs are rich in the antioxidants lutein and zeaxanthin. These are concentrated in the eye and help to protect your eyes from harmful sunlight. This, in turn, helps to prevent cataracts and macular degeneration, which can lead to blindness.
All these nutrients I’ve mentioned are in the yolk. So if you don’t eat the yolk of the egg, then you’re missing out.
Are all these nutrients in eggs good for diabetics? Yes, definitely!
The white
The white of the egg is mostly protein, a very high-quality protein. It’s a complete protein because it contains the whole spectrum of amino acids your body needs to function properly.
There are some amino acids that you can’t produce that you have to eat. These are “essential” amino acids, and you will find them in the white of the egg.
You can cook eggs in lots of different ways. You can eat them virtually any time of the day – morning, afternoon and night.
Eggs for weight loss
When you eat eggs for breakfast, it can help you lose weight.
This works because eggs are fill you up. So you find that if you eat eggs in the morning, you don’t feel that need to nibble and pick at things all through the day. Because you feel full.
You are naturally, without hunger, reducing the number of calories that you’re consuming in a day. Which can help you to lose weight. Many diabetics need to lose weight, so in this scenario, eggs are good for diabetes.
Eggs are great – even in diabetes
Now the next question is going to be, “What about the cholesterol? Eggs are high in cholesterol, and cholesterol is bad for you.”
If you have high blood sugar, you most likely have high cholesterol levels as well.
Over the years, the media and some health bodies have brain-washed us into thinking that we shouldn’t eat cholesterol because it will kill us.
The cholesterol that you eat does not automatically equal cholesterol in your blood.
Cholesterol is vital for our existence
You make cholesterol
Cholesterol is so crucial that you cannot live without it. Your body produces cholesterol, so if you don’t eat enough, your body will make it.
Let’s assume that you need 1000mg of cholesterol in a day. If you consume maybe 300mg in your diet, your body will produce 700mg of cholesterol to make up the difference. If you eat 600mg, then your body will produce 400 mg to make up the difference.
Your body needs a certain amount of cholesterol every day, and if you don’t give it to your body, it will make it by itself. That is how vital cholesterol is to human life.
Eggs are great for brain function and hormone production in diabetics
Believe it or not, about 75% of your brain is fat, so your brain is mainly fat. One-quarter of that fat is cholesterol. That shows that you need cholesterol to make sure that your brain functions the way that it should.
Your body uses cholesterol to produce hormones. These are messengers that move around telling different cells what to do and when to do it. These include the sex hormones progesterone, estrogen and testosterone. Eggs are great for diabetics who need to make sure they are producing enough of these hormones.
The body also produces the stress hormone cortisol from cholesterol.
The cell membrane that holds the cell together is made from cholesterol.
Cholesterol is found in bile, which is secreted into your intestines to help you break down the fat in your food.
So you can see that cholesterol is essential. You can’t do without it.
I’m going to say it one more time – the cholesterol you eat does not equal cholesterol in your blood.
Where did the cholesterol come from? Not from the eggs!
With all the press about the dangers of eating cholesterol, you may have been avoiding it for some time. You may have been taking the skin off your chicken or avoiding red meat and eggs.
And yet, you still have high cholesterol. So, where did that cholesterol come from?
Cholesterol is only found in animals and foods that originate from animals, like dairy products. Vegans do not eat any animal products, and yet some vegans have high blood cholesterol. Where did the cholesterol come from?
This means that there’s something wrong in the body that’s making it produce excessive amounts of cholesterol. And it doesn’t matter what you put in your mouth.
US dietary guidelines on cholesterol and eggs
The older US dietary guidelines told people to eat less than 300mg of cholesterol a day. An average large egg contains about 200 milligrams of cholesterol. So basically, they were saying that you should eat no more than one and a half eggs or the equivalent a day.
There was a lot of fanfare, and it was heavily publicized, “Oh no, don’t eat more than 300mg of cholesterol a day – it’s bad for you.” etc. etc. etc.
In their more recent guidelines, they quietly removed that 300mg limit. With all the noise that was made about this 300mg/day limit, when this limit was removed, we should have heard something.
Instead, what did we get? Crickets!
Unfortunately, some people still haven’t gotten the memo.
They’re still sharing the outdated idea that you should limit your cholesterol to less than 300mg/day. And they are dishing this out as advice to people who don’t know any better.
Meanwhile, this advice never had any scientific basis from the start. As human beings, we’ve been eating eggs for eons, for generations, and we never had any problems.
What is really raising your cholesterol?
Perhaps we should take a closer look at the foods that we eat with the eggs.
What about the toast, orange juice, breakfast cereal and honey (which is supposed to be a healthier alternative to sugar)? Could these be giving eggs a bad reputation?
Eggs are not going to give you a heart attack. People with heart disease can eat a couple of eggs a week – some suggest up to six eggs a week are okay.
This whole egg discussion is a huge distraction. There are so many other things that you could be doing that would have an enormous impact on your health:
- cutting out processed food,
- eating more vegetables
- getting up and moving around a bit more instead of sitting in one place all the time.
These are a much better use of your time and your mental energy than obsessing about how many eggs you can or can’t eat.
These two newer studies add merit to the landmark review(This link opens in a new window) published in 2017 in the Canadian Journal of Diabetes, in which researchers reviewed 10 studies on egg intake for people with diabetes. They found that eating six to 12 eggs per week had no impact on cholesterol, triglycerides, fasting glucose or insulin levels for people with diabetes.
How many eggs do you eat a week? Let me know in the comments.
Yoghurt has been a staple in our home for years now and we almost always have some in the fridge. The supply has been virtually unlimited since I started making my own at home. It is incredibly simple to do. It is one of the oldest and most popular fermented foods that is eaten in most cultures that keep animals for milk.