It's about eggs.
I love my eggs. I've liked eating them since I was young.
And since I was young and since we were young, everyone said, "Don't eat the egg yolks. They are high in cholesterol and bad for you."
As times change, new information/research surface.
According to reports, dietary cholesterol (cholesterol in food that we eat) does not affect serum cholesterol (cholesterol in blood) as much as expected.
HEART UK’s advice on this sticky question has always remained the same. For the majority of people with raised cholesterol there is no reason to limit cholesterol containing foods that are otherwise low in saturated fat. Why? Because the focus of our dietary advice is to lower saturated fat and replace it with healthy calories from unsaturated fats and wholegrain foods. This is because saturated fat has a greater influence on cholesterol levels than eating the foods that contain cholesterol.
--https://heartuk.org.uk/cholesterol-and-diet/low-cholesterol-diets-and-foods/dietary-cholesterol
Now, that's not to say I should eat 12 eggs a day cos I like it. But rather, not to be too concerned if one day I don't eat eggs, then another day I eat 3 eggs. It's not going to make that much of an impact.
Rather, to overall reduce saturated fats and trans fat which are both terrible for our bodies.
And I've been having this debate with my mum for ages, even after showing her multiple articles about it, she keeps telling me not to eat so many eggs. And to me it's pretty much "Hello? Haven't we already been through this?"
The thing is, many things are hard to unlearn. We've been told so many times for so long that we just take the knowledge for granted. That new data isn't taken into account and we change our habits to reflect the new information.
I'm sure this information is widely available if people just look out for it. But most people don't. Even doctors, I think they may know about it, but yet they still recommend not consuming too many eggs. I believe they continue to say that cos it would just confuse patients that suddenly the medical advice has changed after so many years. Or that doctors are just concerned that patients would go crazy eating 12 eggs a day and ruin their health and blame the doctors. Or, just keep the advice constant, cos it doesn't harm the patient to avoid eggs anyway.
So this is one thing which totally bugs me. That people find it so hard to take in new information and change their conclusions. As I said, I'm not planning to eat 12 eggs a day. Some days I eat 1, some days none, but some days if I eat 3, I don't think too much about it. And no, I still will not eat five in a day.
Another thing which has changed is lard.
A couple of articles snippets, below.
Basically, they talk a lot about saturated fat and unsaturated fat.
To understand why, we must look closely at what happens to fats and oils when heated to a high temperature. They undergo what is called oxidation: they react with oxygen in the air to form substances such as aldehydes and lipid peroxides. At room temperature something similar happens, though more slowly.
When fats go rancid they have been oxidised, and it results in the same by-products. It is these aldehydes they form that are the problem. Consuming or inhaling them, even in small amounts, has been linked to increased risk of cancer and heart disease.
'We found that oils which were polyunsaturated-rich - corn oil and sunflower oil - generated very high levels of aldehydes,' Professor Grootveld told me.
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'Sunflower and corn oil are fine, but only as long as you don't subject them to heat, such as frying or cooking,' said Professor Grootveld.
'It's a simple chemical fact that something which is thought to be healthy for us is converted into something that is unhealthy at frying temperatures.'
Aldehydes, which are known promoters of cancer, heart disease and dementia when eaten or inhaled, were present in levels up to 20 times higher than recommended by the World Health Organisation.
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Put simply, cooking with these oils (sunflower and corn oil) is producing even more toxic compounds than has ever before been realised. In contrast, the olive oil and cold-pressed rapeseed oil produced far fewer aldehydes, as did butter and goose fat. The reason being that these fats are richer in monounsatured and saturated fats, and are much more stable when heated.
'Far lower levels of toxic compounds were generated by these oils and the compounds that were are actually less threatening to the human body,' says the professor. And as one in the eye for those who have eschewed old-fashioned fats, his research also suggests that when it comes to cooking, frying in animal fats may be preferable to sunflower or corn oil.
-http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-3176558/It-s-healthier-cook-LARD-sunflower-oil-Extraordinary-experiment-shows-ve-told-cooking-oils-wrong.html
But wait. Isn't lard full of the saturated fat that doctors warn can clog up your arteries? Well, not really. Saturated fat makes up only about 40% of the fat in lard and actually isn't as bad for your health as doctors used to think. In fact, many experts now argue that eating saturated fat is good for overall health. Recent studies have found that eating more saturated fat doesn't increase the risk of heart disease at all, while some studies show it can raise good HDL cholesterol and lower the risk of heart disease when combined with a low-carb or low-sugar diet.
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Besides, lard is lower in saturated fat than other animal fats like butter and tallow, and higher in heart-healthy monounsaturated fat—the type that gives olive oil its health halo. Lard is made up of 50% monounsaturated fat—compare that to only 32% in butter and 6% in coconut oil. Plus, in its natural form, lard has none of the trans fats that we know are bad for you.
-https://www.prevention.com/food/should-you-be-eating-lard
Essentially, they are saying lard isn't as bad as once thought and that it may provide health benefits as well.
Once again, I'm not saying we should gobble down lard like it's the next health food, but rather, let's take a re-look at it and maybe we don't need to avoid it as much as we thought.
So for me, I don't make an active effort to avoid lard or animals fats. Yes I avoid it when I can. I don't eat the pure fat bits in the middle of my ribeye steak. But I also don't go all out of the way to scrape off all the fats when eating a pork trotter.
It's all about moderation.
I don't think too much when I eat 4 lobsters at a buffet or 10 prawns or more red meat, etc. Some days I eat more, some days I eat less. I try to eat clean good food on a daily basis. Cook with less oil and salt and additives, I don't use canned/preserved food much, etc... but when I go out I don't make significant effort to avoid "unhealthy" food.
It's all about a balance. Some foods scientists have said they are unhealthy, and after many years, they now say it is fine. Sometimes, it's the other way around. Rather, I believe, don't overeat too much of ANYTHING regularly. I don't eat lobsters everyday. So when it's available, I just eat. I don't think too much about it. But I'm always aware when I've been overeating something for a period and take a conscious note to eat healthier food to average it out in the next few weeks.
So the thing is, many times, we have been thought things since young. And with new information, are we able to change our perceptions? Sometimes, things are so ingrained that there's no need to change. Like... it's fine to avoid eggs. Doesn't hurt anyone to keep avoiding it. But for me, who loves eggs, the information is useful for me. Cos I can consume more, at times, and not feel too bad about it.
Or we have been taught, carbs, fats, proteins, fiber since young. And we should eat more proteins and veges and cut carbs and fats. But that's not a complete story. Proteins can be used to repair your body or grow. However, if you don't exercise to use the protein to grow, the energy is just used like carbs. And overeating proteins will be stored as fat without corresponding exercise to use up the nutrients.
So this post is pretty much about... well... we have learnt a lot of stuff when we were young. For me, it's been around 30 years of information. That also means the information is 30 years old. Times change, science changes, and we need to unlearn and re-learn as new information comes along and accept the new information regardless how much we would like to hold on to our past beliefs. Cos well... basically, the old info is just obsolete and no longer true anymore. Or we need to enhance our knowledge when new information comes along. It's not always yes or no only, sometimes there are caveats as we learn new ways of looking at things. Yes in this case, or no if certain conditions are met.
Remember don't always look at last time and stay there.
Last time policemen wore shorts... and Now...
They still wear shorts...
CPO (Community Policing Officers) they still carry their full utility belt.
So you know how to answer when someone says that next time.
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