Atkins Without Eggs--Is It Possible?

[2muchbutt]

I know most people on Atkins seem to tolerate eating lots and lots of eggs but my cholesterol levels are too high and my dr. said to limit eggs to 2 a week for 2 months and then come back for a retest. Now what do I do? I'm fairly new and feel like I will need to quit and try WW or something.....I don't seem to be losing very quickly but the scale IS moving a little and I am NOT gaining. I'm sad and confused....

[momtomany1]

I honestly think your doctor is working with old info. I believe that eggs have been given a bad cholesterol rap and that more recent research has cleared their name! I will wait for those with more medical knowledge than I possess.. but I am eating up my eggs.

Atkins has a high rate of success lowering cholesterol. There is much info in the book on this subject.. I think you need to continue! I really do!

[Swordfish]

From what i believe the Atkin's Diet help's to lower cholesterol.
Personally, i'm happy with that idea.
I eat so many egg's i'm surprised i can't fly

[2muchbutt]

I am lovin my eggs! everyday 2 for breakfast and then in the evening if I get really hungry I will eat a couple more. Maybe I will just continue with the eggs for a couple months and they get the test and if the numbers are still high I will reconsider. I think if I can lose about 25 pounds my cholesterol will naturally go down anyway.

[not2late]

It is possible to do an egg-free ATkins,since there are so many protein foods available to eat.

[determined2shrink]

funny you ask...

I just watched some show on food network called food myths or something similar i dont recall. Well they mentioned the egg cholesterol thing and it is a myth, eating one or two eggs a day will not affect your cholesterol levels. Actually from my understanding the cholesterol in animal food products is not what actually raises your levels in the first place.

[FLdoodette]

My understanding is that eggs are also high in lecithin, which supposedly aids in reducing cholesterol ... but biogeek or gbidruglord would know better than I.

At any rate, bring on the eggs; especially those lovely organic ones with deep orange yolks .... bwaaaak!

[gbidruglord]

From what I've been reading, there have been some studies that show that soy based lecithin lowers cholesterol, however that's really outside the scope of my knowledge. However, I do know that eggs lecithin is a great emulsifier. Egg whites mostly water based and egg yolks are mostly fat based. But since the yolk's got lecithin, it allows both the white and yolk to be together (when you beat/whisk it) and not separate out like oil and vinegar.

Mustard is also packed with lecithin. When making my oil/vinegar dressing for lunch, sometimes I add just a dab of Dijon mustard and it helps the oil and vinegar mix and stay mix.

Okay, science/cooking class is over

[2muchbutt]

I know my grandpa ate eggs every day for years and he was never anything but slim and healthy. He was in his 90's when he died. He also ate a can of anchovies on crackers for lunch everyday! Thanks for the lesson adam druglord??? One question tho' do the eggs have to be scrambled or can they be fried as they come out of the shell? p.s.---I AM a true blonde! haha sometimes you need to draw me a picture!!

[matawguro]

The eggs question comes up so often, it should be FAQ'd or put upon the ADBB wiki.

Reposting here some stuff i quoted in another thread about eggs...

"The myth that eggs are somehow linked with heart disease received its impetus fifty years ago when research sponsored by the Cereal Institute (please do notice the sponsor) demonstrated that feeding eggs to animals and humans would raise their serum cholesterol level.

"Recently, Bruce Taylor, M.D., of Albany Medical College, pointed out that all the compelling research of the early years was done by feeding dried egg yolk powder, not fried or poached eggs as eggs are usually eaten. Then he proved that the dried yolk powder is an oxidized form that is toxic to the blood vessels. By rights, all the early powdered egg yolk studies would have to be thrown out as invalid. But Dr. Taylor's warning was not heeded...

"The results of the powdered egg yolk studies... have not been borne out in later studies in the 1970s and 1980s. There are close to a dozen published studies showing very litle, if any, cholesterol elevation from eating eggs.

"...if you want a quick test to judge whether a doctor is a good nutritionist, ask him what he thinks of eggs. If he insists that you must restrict your egg consumption, he's a poor nutritionist. If he says you must always make sure to include eggs in your diet, he's a good nutritionist. And if he says you should always include eggs in your diet unless you have a specific intolerance to them, he's an even better nutritionist."

-- Dr. Robert Atkins; Dr. Atkins Health Revolution, pp 235-236

"And all those high -quality proteins, which one is the very best?... the answer is the egg...

"If eggs are such a good source of essential amino acids, why does your conventional doctor tell you to eat them only occasionally? Because he or she thinks eggs raise cholesterol... however, there's very little connection between the cholesterol you eat and the cholesterol in your blood. I could cite dozens of studies that show... eating eggs actually improves your blood cholesterol profile.... In a 1994 study, twenty four adults added two eggs a day to their usual diets for six weeks. At the end of the period, their total cholesterol had increased by 4 percent. Their all-important HDL levels, however, were up 10 percent.

"Many patients that come to me... have eliminated eggs from their diet, in the mistaken belief that they're doing something positive for their health. One of the first things I recommend to them is to start eating eggs again, at least two a day."

-- Dr. Robert Atkins; Dr. Atkins Age-defying Diet Revolution, pp 94-95

"Ironically, some of the most reliable facts about the diet-heart hypothesis have been consistently ignored by public-health authorities because they complicated the message, and the least reliable findings were adopted because they didn't. Dietary cholesterol, for instance, has an insignificant effect on blood cholesterol. It might elevate cholesterol levels in a small percentage of highly sensitive individuals, but for most of us, it's clinically meaningless. Nonetheless, the advice to eat less cholesterol - avoiding egg yolks for instance - remains gospel. Telling people they should worry about cholesterol in their blood but not in their diet has been deemed to confusing."

-- Gary Taubes; Good Calories, Bad Calories, page 19

"The popular press is currently down on meat and eggs, but my personal observations and recent research implicate carbohydrates rather than dietary fat in the heart disease and abnormal blood lipid profiles of diabetics and even of non-diabetics. If you are frightened of these foods, you can restrict them, but depriving yourself will be unlikely to buy you anything.... Egg yolks, by the way, are a major source of nutrient lutien, which is beneficial to the retina of the eye. Organic eggs contain large amounts of omega-3 fatty acids which are good for your arteries."

-- Dr. Richard Bernstein; Dr. Bernstein's Diabetic Solution, pp 149-150