Portion Distortion

Think what you're eating is one serving? Think again. Restaurant portion sizes have grown considerably in recent decades, becoming so large they've distorted our understanding of what constitutes an appropriate serving of food.

Take a look at how portion sizes have changed over the years:
• Muffins that once weighed 1.5 ounces (a standard serving size) can now weigh up to 8 ounces.
• Bagels were once the size of 1 to 2 servings of bread. Today, a bagel at Starbucks weighs 5 ounces, which is equivalent to about 6.4 servings of bread.
• The original Coca-Cola bottles held only 6 ounces of soda. Today, the standard bottle holds 20 ounces.
• In 1955 McDonald's only offered one size of French fries: 2.4 ounces. Now a small order of fries is 2.4 ounces, a medium is 5.3 ounces, a large is 6.3 ounces and a Supersize is 7.1 ounces.
• In 1908, a Hershey bar was 0.6 ounces. Now they come in 1.6-, 2.6-, 4-, 7- and 8-ounce sizes.

No wonder consumers are confused: The standard serving sizes prescribed by the USDA have changed very little. These pertain to the recommended daily allowance of calories and nutrients. By today's portion sizes, we're eating more food than our bodies need.

The difference between how much the USDA says we should eat and how much food restaurants put in front of us may be one reason why Americans' waistlines are expanding. Research has shown that when we are served more, we eat more. Plus, we live in a culture that promotes the idea that more of anything is better. But when it comes to calories, this isn't the case.

You can control your portions by following a few tips:
• Measure foods occasionally at home: Portion sizes can creep up on even the most careful eater!
• Read food labels: They'll clue you in to the calories, fat, carbs, fiber and protein per serving.
• Use smaller plates and bowls at home and fill your plate with fruits and veggies first. (Aim for half of the plate to be full of the colorful stuff).
• When you go out to eat, order an appetizer and salad instead of an entrée, or ask that half your entrée be put in a to-go box before your meal is served.
• Make your motto: "Downsize, not Supersize!"

Why High-Fructose Corn Syrup Causes Insulin Resistance

A new study in mice sheds light on at least part of the reason for the insulin resistance that can come from diets high in high-fructose corn syrup, a sweetener found in most sodas and many other processed foods.

Fructose is much more readily metabolized to fat in the liver than glucose, and in the process can lead to nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. NAFLD in turn leads to hepatic insulin resistance and type II diabetes.

Researchers showed that mice fed a high-fructose diet could be protected from insulin resistance if a gene known as transcriptional coactivator PPARg coactivator-1b (PGC-1b) was "knocked down" in the animals' liver and fat tissue. PGC-1b controls the activity of several other genes, including one responsible for building fat in the liver. This suggests an important role for PGC-1b in the pathogenesis of fructose-induced insulin resistance.

According to the latest statistics, new cases of diabetes have increased by 90 percent in the last 10 years, and diabetes or pre-diabetes now strikes one in four Americans. Those are absolutely astounding statistics to say the least.

There’s no doubt in my mind that one of the primary fuels for this epidemic is the excess consumption of high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). Several studies over the past few years have also come to this conclusion, including this latest study in Cell Metabolism, in which the researchers note:

“Insulin resistance is a common feature of the metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Both have reached epidemic proportions worldwide with the global adoption of the westernized diet along with increased consumption of fructose, stemming from the wide and increasing use of high-fructose corn syrup sweeteners.

It is well established that fructose is more lipogenic than glucose, and high-fructose diets have been linked to hypertriglyceridemia, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), and insulin resistance.”

Unfortunately, this study does nothing to further the return to a more sane approach to health, but will likely just create even more problems as they propose their findings could lead to yet another drug treatment to hamper the harmful effects of HFCS consumption.

Absolutely in line with the drug model, and one has to seriously wonder if they weren’t behind this study.

The answer is clearly not to create more drugs to combat the problem of diabetes, but rather to educate the public about healthier eating habits – which includes AVOIDING high fructose corn syrup as much as possible.

Scientists have clearly linked the rising HFCS consumption to the epidemics of obesity, diabetes and metabolic syndrome in the U.S., and medical researchers have pinpointed various health dangers associated with the consumption of HFCS compared to regular sugar.

Despite all the evidence, the industry persists in claiming these findings are untrue, arguing that HFCS is the same as sugar. Their campaign also relies on nutritional research, but it should be noted that the funding for many of the major studies in question came from companies with a financial stake in the outcome.

Reminds me quite a bit of the tobacco lobby’s consistent denial that smoking causes lung cancer until they had no choice but to admit it.

How Much High Fructose Corn Syrup is in Your Diet?

The obesity and diabetes epidemics are no surprise when you consider the fact that the number one source of calories in America is high fructose corn syrup in soda.

There are about 40 grams of HFCS per can – more than the American Medical Association’s recommended daily maximum for ALL caloric sweeteners. And that’s without adding in all the corn syrup now found in every type of processed, pre-packaged food you can think of.

In fact, the use of high fructose corn syrup in the U.S. diet increased a staggering 10,673 percent between 1970 and 2005, according to the latest USDA Dietary Assessment of Major Trends in U.S. Food Consumption report. That too is no major surprise considering that processed foods account for more than 90 percent of the money Americans spend on their meals.

All in all, according to the USDA’s report, about one-quarter of the calories consumed by the average American is in the form of added sugars – the majority of which comes from high fructose corn syrup.

Folks, this is an absolute prescription for disaster. Is it any wonder that we are suffering epidemics of chronic diseases that are contributing to the economic collapse, as they require expensive drug and surgical solutions that only treat the symptoms, but do nothing to address the cause of the disease?

Why High Fructose Corn Syrup IS Worse For You than Sugar

If you need to lose weight, or if you want to avoid diabetes and heart disease, fructose is one type of sugar you’ll want to avoid, particularly in the form of high-fructose corn syrup.

Part of what makes HFCS such a dangerous sweetener is that it is metabolized to fat in your body far more rapidly than any other sugar.

According to Dr. Elizabeth Parks, associate professor of clinical nutrition at UT Southwestern Medical Center and lead author of a study on fructose, published in the Journal of Nutrition just last year:

"Our study shows for the first time the surprising speed with which humans make body fat from fructose. Once you start the process of fat synthesis from fructose, it's hard to slow it down. The bottom line of this study is that fructose very quickly gets made into fat in your body."

This occurs because most fats are formed in your liver, and when sugar enters your liver, it decides whether to store it, burn it or turn it into fat. Fructose, however, bypasses this process and simply turns into fat.

Additionally, there’s hard empirical evidence showing that refined man-made fructose like HFCS metabolizes to triglycerides and adipose tissue, not blood glucose. And one of the most thorough scientific analyses published to date on this topic found that fructose consumption leads to decreased signaling to your central nervous system from the hormones leptin and insulin.

Because insulin and leptin act as key signals in regulating how much food you eat, as well as your body weight, this suggests that dietary fructose may contribute to increased food intake and weight gain.

Decreased insulin and leptin signaling is also a main cause of diabetes and a host of other obesity-related conditions.

How HFCS Contributes to Diabetes

In addition to everything already mentioned -- including these latest findings that HFCS consumption can lead to nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, followed by hepatic insulin resistance and then type 2 diabetes -- research reported at the 2007 national meeting of the American Chemical Society, found evidence that soft drinks sweetened with HFCS may contribute to the development of diabetes because it contains high levels of reactive compounds that trigger cell and tissue damage that cause diabetes.

Chemical tests among 11 different carbonated soft drinks containing HFCS were found to have ‘astonishingly high’ levels of reactive carbonyls. Reactive carbonyls are undesirable and highly-reactive compounds associated with “unbound” fructose and glucose molecules, and are believed to cause tissue damage.

By contrast, reactive carbonyls are not present in table sugar because its fructose and glucose components are “bound” and chemically stable.

Reactive carbonyls are elevated in the blood of individuals with diabetes and are linked to the health complications of diabetes. It is estimated that a single can of soda contains about five times the concentration of reactive carbonyls than the concentration found in the blood of an adult person with diabetes.

How HFCS Contributes to Heart Disease

HFCS is also known to significantly raise your triglycerides and LDL (bad cholesterol). Triglycerides, the chemical form of fat found in foods and in your body, are not something you want in excess amounts.

Intense research over the past 40 years has confirmed that elevated blood levels of triglycerides, known as hypertriglyceridemia, puts you at an increased risk of heart disease.

Additional Health Dangers of High Fructose Corn Syrup

As if all of that wasn’t bad enough, fructose also does not contain any enzymes, vitamins or minerals so it takes these micronutrients from your body while it assimilates itself for use.

Unbound fructose, found in large quantities in HFCS, can interfere with your heart's use of minerals such as magnesium, copper and chromium.

Please note that this does not mean you should avoid whole fruit, however, as it contains natural fructose together with the enzymes, vitamins and minerals needed for your body to assimilate the fructose. Eating small amounts of whole fruit also does not provide a tremendous amount of fructose, and is not likely to be a problem for most people unless diabetes or obesity is an issue.

And lastly, adding insult to injury, HFCS is almost always made from genetically modified corn, which is fraught with its own well documented side effects and health concerns.

GMO corn will radically increase your risk of developing corn allergies. The problem with corn allergies are that once you have a corn allergy from GMO corn you will have an allergy to even healthy organic corn products.

How You Can Drastically Improve Your Overall Health

If you want to drastically improve your health, the answer is quite simple. To lose weight and reduce your risk of developing metabolic syndrome, diabetes, and heart disease, STOP drinking soda and processed fruit juices. Switch to pure water as your beverage of choice and you will be well on your way to better health.

To preserve your health you also need to focus your diet on whole foods based on your personal biochemistry, and, if you do purchase packaged foods, become an avid label reader and avoid foods that contain corn syrup as a main ingredient.

Related Links:

How High Fructose Corn Syrup Damages Your Body

Debate About Dangers of High-Fructose Corn Syrup

Beware of New Media Brainwashing About High Fructose Corn Syrup

Vitamin D -- The Master Key to Optimal Health

Dr. Robert Heaney explains why the sunshine vitamin is so vitally important, and how a single nutrient can have so many effects.

I'm sure you received many valuable health tips from this small segment of the expert interview. To hear the full version of this and other interviews I do with world-renowned health experts, it's easy... Simply sign up for the affordable Mercola Inner Circle and receive them monthly, with zero effort on your part. Take this small step -- and take control of your health -- 2,490 other Mercola Inner Circle members can't be wrong!

Dr. Mercola's Comments:

In this video clip of my Inner Circle expert interview with Dr. Heaney, you get a better understanding of how it is that vitamin D can have such a vast number of health benefits.

I have interviewed many of the leading experts in the vitamin D world and it is clear that Dr. Heaney has earned the respect of all of them. He is greatly admired in that arena as a leader and pioneer; as someone who has and continues to push the envelope, and applies practical knowledge to reduce human suffering.

If you’re a regular reader of this newsletter, or read medical news in the conventional media, you may have noticed that newly discovered benefits of the “sunshine vitamin” are published on a regular basis these days.

What Makes Vitamin D so Special?

First, it’s important to realize that vitamin D is not “just a vitamin,” but rather the only known substrate for a potent, pleiotropic (meaning it produces multiple effects), repair and maintenance seco-steroid hormone that serves multiple gene-regulatory functions in your body.

As Dr. Heaney so vividly explains here, each cell in your body has its own DNA library that contains information needed to deal with virtually every kind of stimulus it may encounter, and the master key to enter this library is activated vitamin D.

For example, memory ductile cells in the breast need vitamin D to access DNA that enables the response to estrogen.

So naturally, without sufficient amounts of vitamin D, your cells cannot access their DNA libraries and their functions are thereby impaired.

This is why vitamin D functions in so many different tissues, and affects such a large number of different diseases and health conditions. So far, scientists have found about 3,000 genes that are upregulated by vitamin D.

Receptors that respond to the vitamin have been found in almost every type of human cell, from your brain to your bones. And researchers keep finding health benefits from vitamin D in virtually every area they look.

Vitamin D Deficiency May Radically Hamper Your Overall Health

Just one example of an important gene that vitamin D up-regulates is your ability to fight infections, including the flu. It produces over 200 anti microbial peptides, the most important of which is cathelicidin, a naturally occurring broad-spectrum antibiotic.

Optimizing your vitamin D levels can also help you to prevent as many as 16 different types of cancer including pancreatic, lung, breast, ovarian, prostate, and colon cancers.

But perhaps most important to note is that vitamin D can lower your risk of dying from any cause, according to a new European meta-analysis published in the Archives of Internal Medicine in 2007.

Another group of researchers have calculated that simply increasing levels of vitamin D3 could prevent diseases that claim nearly 1 million lives throughout the world each year, as the widespread vitamin D deficiency seen today is now thought to fuel an astonishingly diverse array of common chronic diseases, such as:

Cancer	Hypertension	Heart disease
Autism	Obesity	Rheumatoid arthritis
Diabetes 1 and 2	Multiple Sclerosis	Crohn’s disease
Cold & Flu	Inflammatory Bowel Disease	Tuberculosis
Septicemia	Signs of aging	Dementia
Eczema & Psoriasis	Insomnia	Hearing loss
Muscle pain	Cavities	Periodontal disease
Osteoporosis	Macular degeneration	Reduced C-section risk
Pre eclampsia	Seizures	Infertility
Asthma	Cystic fibrosis	Migraines
Depression	Alzheimer’s disease	Schizophrenia

It’s absolutely tragic that dermatologists and sunscreen manufacturers have done such a thorough job of scaring people out of the sun – your optimal source for natural vitamin D. I believe this is one of the major influences that has contributed to the vitamin D epidemic we’re now facing.

But Why Doesn’t Everyone Get the Same Dysfunctions When Deficient?

That’s a good question.

As Dr. Heaney explains, cells do have alternative ways to access their DNA information – they can work around the problem without the proper plans, so to speak -- but it’s never quite as effective.

Depending on your overall state of health and other dysfunctions, your cells may be more or less efficient at finding effective work-arounds, and this will determine how your health is affected if you’re vitamin D deficient.

Health Benefits are Dose Dependent

It’s important to note, however, that reaping the health benefits of vitamin D is not like turning a light switch. It’s not a matter of having ‘some vitamin D’ or not – it’s all a question of dose.

In order to reap the benefits you need to make sure your levels are within therapeutic range.

According to Dr. Heaney, your body requires 4,000 IU’s daily just to maintain its current vitamin D level. So in order to raise your levels, you’d have to increase either your exposure to sunshine, or supplement with oral vitamin D3 (which I do not recommend without having your levels tested first).

For all the latest information on therapeutic vitamin D levels, and vital updates on testing, please review my article: Test Values and Treatment for Vitamin D Deficiency.

One thing is clear. If you maintain optimal vitamin D levels, your cells will function optimally; helping to prevent all manner of disease, and maintain good health.

For a great overview of the nearly unbelievable health benefits of this vitamin, I strongly recommend you watch my one-hour free vitamin D lecture.

Could Your Muscle Pain Really be Fibromyalgia? What You Should Know...

When I started my medical practice over two decades ago, fibromyalgia was so commonly missed that by the time the average person was finally diagnosed, they’d been seeing various physicians for nine or ten years. Today, the pendulum seems to have swung the other way, and it’s likely that a lot of people are being misdiagnosed with this condition. It has unfortunately become a convenient catch-all for a variety of complaints.

However, there’s no doubt that fibromyalgia is a very real, painful, and sometimes debilitating health condition.

It’s estimated that 2 to 4 percent of the U.S. population has fibromyalgia, and nine out of 10 are women.

Unfortunately, there is still no specific diagnostic test that is conventionally appreciated to diagnose someone with this condition. Rather you will have to meet certain clinical criteria -- the most common one being hypersensitivity to pain.

Signs and Symptoms of Fibromyalgia

One of the most important criteria to determine whether or not you may have fibromyalgia is significant pain in very specific areas of your body, including:

• Inside of your elbows
• Your collar bones
• Inside of your knees
• Your hips

Usually these locations are symmetrical, so you’ll have pain equally present on both sides of your body. Experiencing significant pain when someone presses on those areas, on both sides, is indicative of fibromyalgia.

People also frequently report pain all over their bodies -- including in their muscles, ligaments and tendons -- along with a feeling of exhaustion, as well as a variety of other nebulous conditions, such as:

• Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS)
• Depression
• Ringing of the ears (tinnitus)
• Headaches

Another major part of the diagnostic criteria for this condition is some type of significant sleep disturbance.

In fact, part of an effective treatment program is to make sure you’re sleeping better.

The typical treatment strategy you’ll be offered, if seen by a conventional physician, is some form of pain medication, and perhaps psychotropic drugs like antidepressants. I don’t recommend either of them because they do not address the cause of your problem in any way shape or form.

Additionally, many fibromyalgia sufferers do not respond to conventional painkillers, which can set in motion a vicious circle of overmedicating on these dangerous drugs.

Effective Drug-Free Treatment Strategies for Fibromyalgia

Get Proper Sleep -- Sleeping well should be first on your list of essential treatment strategies. It’s important to realize that even if you lead a very healthy lifestyle – which includes getting appropriate sun exposure to optimize your vitamin D levels, eating organic, locally grown food, exercising and having low amounts of emotional stress – if you’re not sleeping properly you will definitely experience negative health consequences, despite all your other efforts.

Implement a regular exercise regimen -- One of the most important strategies to help you sleep better is regular exercise.

Unfortunately, people suffering from fibromyalgia pain tend to shy away from exercise, and understandably so. But research shows that a combination of aerobic activity and strength training can actually improve fibromyalgia symptoms.

In one study by Harvard researchers, after exercising for 20 weeks, women with fibromyalgia reported improved muscle strength and endurance, and lessening of their symptoms including pain, stiffness, fatigue and depression.

Now, it’s important to remember that tolerance is a key point if you suffer from fibromyalgia. You don’t want to do exercises that will worsen your condition.

If you perform an exercise that aggravates your pain within a few hours or the next day, it’s a good gauge that you’ve done too much and need to back off, or switch to something else. You’ll need to slowly but surely progress into a program that will make you better.

Ideally, you’ll want to get up to an hour per day, varying your exercise routine so that you’re not doing the same exercises each day.

You’ll want to strive for a combination of aerobic, anaerobic, burst-sprint type exercises and strength training, preferably supervised by an exercise professional. But again, always take into account your own tolerance to each exercise.

Optimize your vitamin D levels -- Interestingly, some of the new research in vitamin D shows it is very effective for muscle pain, so I strongly encourage you, not just for fibromyalgia but for numerous other reasons as well, to make sure you have your vitamin D levels tested.

And, if you are deficient, follow my recommendations on how to optimize your levels, as this could make a significant difference in your overall health. For more information, I recommend you watch my free one-hour lecture on vitamin D.

Eat right – “Eating right” includes avoiding processed foods, and concentrating on fresh, whole foods. Ideally foods that are both organic and locally-grown. You’ll also want to eat foods that are appropriate for your nutritional type because we all have an ideal mixture of proteins, fats and carbohydrates that we were designed to eat based on biochemistry and genetics, and this varies from person to person.

There are, however, several food items that can aggravate fibromyalgia symptoms and should be avoided as much as possible, including:

• Corn
• Wheat
• Dairy
• Citrus
• Soy
• Nuts
Address your emotional challenges – In my experience, nearly all fibromyalgia sufferers have some form of underlying emotional challenge that contributes to their condition.

There are many ways to address your emotional issues, including meditation and prayer. In my practice, we like to use the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) as it is a very powerful, effective, and rapidly useful method to resolve emotional blocks on an energetic level.

For a look at the sometimes spectacular results EFT has with Fibromyalgia read this article from the EFT Web site – “Fibromyalgia Patient—“I forgot what pain is all about.”

Natural Alternatives to Relieve Pain

Additionally, as you work to normalize your emotional traumas the following therapies can further help to reduce pain and get you back on track to optimal health, without resorting to potentially dangerous drugs:

• Chiropractic Care -- Especially the disciplines in chiropractic that address the emotional components, like TBM, NET and BEST. Dr. Kent provides some excellent recommendations on how to locate a good chiropractor if you don’t currently know of one.

• Acupuncture -- Western studies have shown that the use of acupuncture on pain-relief points cuts the blood flow to key areas of your brain within seconds, which may explain how this ancient technique might help relieve pain. It’s also been suggested that acupuncture may help support the activity of your body's natural pain-killing chemicals, and studies have found it to provide relief from fibromyalgia pain for up to 16 weeks.

If you start applying these techniques you likely will not need to rely on conventional drug therapy to help relieve some of the symptoms associated with fibromyalgia.

Related Links:

Proof That Fibromyalgia is Real

Nutritional Typing Cures Fibromyalgia, Depression and Panic Attacks

Fibromyalgia, Lyrica, and the New York Times

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2009/03/07/Could-Your-Muscle-Pain-Really-be-Fibromyalgia_3F00_-What-You-Should-Know_2E00__2E00__2E00_.aspx

The Sunny Side of Eggs

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive...



Despite decades of advice that the cholesterol in eggs is bad for you, researchers now report evidence that eggs might actually reduce high blood pressure.

The scientists found egg proteins that, in laboratory simulations of the human digestive process, seem to be as good as common prescription medications for lowering blood pressure.

However, it should be noted that funding for the research came from livestock and poultry industry groups. And the researchers emphasized that further study is needed to determine if the proteins actually work in humans.

Eggs are one of the healthiest foods you can eat, and it’s a shame they’ve been vilified for so long in the United States. As a result, egg consumption has been going down for the last 40 years, all because of concerns about cholesterol.

But the idea that eggs are unhealthy is a complete myth, one that’s easily debunked if you look at the evidence.

In this latest study, researchers identified several different peptides in eggs that act as potent ACE inhibitors, which are drugs used to lower high blood pressure. This means they may actually lower your risk of heart disease, not raise it as health officials like to say they do.

One particularly skewed belief is that eggs are bad for your heart; however, eating eggs on a daily basis may prove to hold numerous health benefits, especially a decreased risk of heart disease.

Why Eggs Won’t Harm Your Heart

There is a major misconception that you must avoid foods like eggs and saturated fat to protect your heart. While it’s true that fats from animal sources contain cholesterol, this is not necessarily something that will harm you.

Cholesterol is in every cell in your body, where it helps to produce cell membranes, hormones, vitamin D and bile acids that help you to digest fat. Cholesterol also helps in the formation of memories and is vital for your neurological function.

As Ron Rosedale, MD, who is widely considered to be the leading anti-aging doctor in the United States, says:

“First and foremost cholesterol is a vital component of every cell membrane on Earth. In other words, there is no life on Earth that can live without cholesterol. That will automatically tell you that, in of itself, it cannot be evil. In fact it is one of our best friends.

We would not be here without it. No wonder lowering cholesterol too much increases one's risk of dying. Cholesterol also is a precursor to all of the steroid hormones. You cannot make estrogen, testosterone, cortisone, and a host of other vital hormones without cholesterol.”

In other words, cholesterol is your friend, not your enemy.

And anyway, numerous studies have supported the finding that eggs have virtually nothing to do with raising your cholesterol. For instance, research published in the International Journal of Cardiology showed that, in healthy adults, eating eggs every day did not produce:

• A negative effect on endothelial function, an aggregate measure of cardiac risk
• An increase in cholesterol levels

So how did the notion that eating eggs will raise your cholesterol, and in turn raise your risk of heart disease, come about in the first place?

The Misguided Lipid Hypothesis … and its Role in Demonizing the Egg

This misguided principle is based on the "lipid hypothesis" -- developed in the 1950s by nutrition pioneer Ancel Keys -- that linked dietary fat to coronary heart disease.

The nutrition community of that time completely accepted the hypothesis, and encouraged the public to cut out butter, red meat, animal fats, eggs, dairy and other "artery clogging" fats from their diets -- a radical change at that time.

What you may not know is that when Keys published his analysis that claimed to prove the link between dietary fats and coronary heart disease, he selectively analyzed information from only six countries to prove his correlation, rather than comparing all the data available at the time -- from 22 countries.

As a result of this "cherry-picked" data, government health organizations began bombarding the public with advice that has contributed to many of the disease epidemics going on today: eat a low-fat diet.

Not surprisingly, numerous studies have actually shown that Keys’ theory was wrong and foods like eggs are healthy, including this study from Sally Fallon and Mary Enig’s classic article The Skinny on Fats.

• A survey of South Carolina adults found no correlation of blood cholesterol levels with "bad" dietary habits, such as use of red meat, animal fats, fried foods, butter, eggs, whole milk, bacon, sausage and cheese.

Sadly, as Americans cut out nutritious animal foods like eggs from their diets, they were left hungry. So they began eating more processed grains, more vegetable oils, and more high-fructose corn syrup, all of which are nutritional disasters.

It is this latter type of diet that will actually lead to increased inflammation, and therefore cholesterol, in your body. So don’t let anyone scare you away from eggs (and other animal foods) anymore.

But Wait … The Type of Egg DOES Matter

Eggs are an incredible source of high-quality nutrients that many of us are deficient in -- especially high-quality protein and fat. And it is my strong belief that they are a nearly ideal fuel source for most of us.

One caveat: Please choose the higher quality free-range organic varieties. An egg is considered organic if the chicken was only fed organic food, which means it will not have accumulated high levels of pesticides from the grains (mostly GM corn) fed to typical chickens.

Organic eggs are also far less likely to be contaminated with salmonella.

Are Omega-3 Eggs Any Better?

As for eggs advertised as having omega-3 fat added, this may not be as good as the manufacturers are leading you to believe. If they are using flaxseed to increase the omega-3 fats in the eggs, it won't be as beneficial as if they fed the chickens seaweed or kelp, which have the far more beneficial DHA and EPA, as opposed to ALA in flax.

Also, typically the chickens are fed poor-quality sources of omega-3 fats that are already oxidized. Additionally, omega-3 eggs are far more perishable than non-omega-3 eggs so they don’t stay fresh nearly as long.

If possible, I recommend purchasing your eggs from the farmer directly, as this way you can be certain of the quality. If you cannot find a farmer to sell you eggs directly, then organic eggs from the store would be your next best option.

To find free-range pasture farms you can try asking at your local health food store or visit:

• www.eatwild.com
• www.localharvest.com

When you get your eggs home, store them on the counter instead of in the refrigerator, as this will help protect the nutrients. Although this is regarded as a “strange” practice in the United States, eggs are always stored at room temperature in Europe or South America.

The Absolute BEST Way to Eat Your Eggs Is …

Raw, hands down. I know that many of you, especially women, will find this particularly difficult to accept. This is primarily because of the slimy texture but if you whip them up in a shake you won’t even know they are there.

Raw eggs are better because cooking them will damage the valuable nutrients like lutein and zeaxanthin, bioflavanoids present in egg yolk that are incredibly important for your vision.

Heating the egg protein also changes its chemical shape, and the distortion can easily lead to allergies.

Further, when an egg is overcooked, such as when it is scrambled, the cholesterol in it becomes oxidized, or rancid, and oxidized cholesterol can increase your levels of inflammation and lead to numerous health problems.

So if you want to get the maximum health benefits that eggs have to offer, choose organic varieties and eat them raw. The next best would be soft-boiled and then sunny-side up, with the yolk still very runny.

If you are worried about getting salmonella from eating raw eggs, as many people initially are, please read my past article on the topic -- Raw Eggs for Your Health -- to address your concerns. The risk is actually very, very small.

Related Links:

Eggs are the Better Breakfast Choice

A Novel Way to Consume Raw Eggs

Eggs-aggerated Health Myth Debunked