I had my annual physical yesterday …

…including fasting blood work to make sure things are “in check.”

I’m anxious to get my Vitamin D levels tested – if you didn’t get a chance to read if you need to take vitamin D, make sure you check it out!

I’m also always interested in my lipid panel.  

So far it’s been a clean bill of health, but with my mom having genetically high triglycerides (to the tune of 500 mg/dL+, when they should be under 150 mg/dL), it’s important to make sure all is still on track.

Speaking of lipids – a recent study was published about egg yolks and HDL (known as the “good” cholesterol).

And that brings up the question: Do you eat egg yolks?  

It wasn’t long ago that yolks were the devil – and egg white omelets were all the rage – now egg yolks are back … and highly recommended from the Mohr Results Team.

While some still shun the yellow goodness in the egg, we know that egg yolks are fantastic for you.  

There has NEVER been a connection between eating eggs and heart disease.

And a recent study by researchers at the University of Connecticut supported the notion that eggs are fantastic for you, despite the high levels of cholesterol in them.

They found that after feeding groups an additional 640 mg of dietary cholesterol through egg yolks (about 200 mg of cholesterol/yolk) the plasma (in the blood) levels of HDL (the “good” cholesterol) were significantly higher than those who did not eat the additional dietary cholesterol from egg yolks.

I’ll let you know what my lab results are when I get them – I eat 2-3 whole eggs each day, so while my report is purely anecdotal, we’ll see how it pans out.

You see, while it was once though that eating dietary cholesterol meant it went directly to your arteries to form plaque, we now know that dietary cholesterol doesn’t play much of a role in plasma cholesterol…or heart disease for that matter.

In fact a study published in 2007 fed participants eggs daily, upwards of over 6 per week (so around 1 or more per day) and they concluded that “regular egg consumption does not increase the risk of stroke and cardiovascular diseases.”

Here’s the deal – the body makes cholesterol.  

So what basically happens when you eat dietary cholesterol is your cholesterol production slows.  

Or the reverse holds true – you don’t eat enough, which usually means way too little dietary fat, your body will do what’s called “upregulate” or make more to meet the body’s needs.

Outside of the cholesterol "concern," eggs are high in some nutrients that may be otherwise difficult to get in the diet – choline, which is great for brain health, carotenoids, which are important for eye health, and zeaxanthin, which is an antioxidant.  And those are just a few of the benefits.

Moral of the story: don’t throw away the yolks.  

Egg yolks provide at least 13 important nutrients – egg whites don’t offer much outside of protein and a few other nutrients. 

Dietary cholesterol is NOT the devil it was once thought to be.