Many Good Mood Dieters are happy to see a daily egg on menu. In some cases, they are re-introducing a favorite food after years of seeing media reports about the cholesterol count in the yolk. Or maybe they are switching back from egg-whites only omelets. (One full egg with some additional whites is the optimal choice for mood and brain power.)
It’s important to note that all 14 days of sample menus in the book fall within the federal guidelines of 300 daily milligrams of cholesterol. That’s no accident; Dr. Kleiner designed it that way. It’s not about the egg, which you should feel free to savor each morning as you please cooked any way except with fat, but about skipping the fried and processed foods that creep into the American diet.
Saturated fats in fatty cuts of meat and whole milk (or 2 percent) can cause the body to makes it own bad type of cholesterol. Same goes, especially so, for the trans fats that come from deep frying or that show up on packaged food nutrition labels.
Here are some important numbers according to American Heart Association estimates:
Mother Earth News, an engaging Kansas-based magazine dedicated to the return of "real food" to our tables, tested the cholesterol content of free-range chicken flocks. Their findings:
Some larger producers are catching on, adding flax seeds and sea kelp to feed so the eggs from those chickens are higher in omega-3s. And some egg farmers have discovered that adding marigolds to the feed boosts lutein, which is an essential substance for healthy eyesight in humans.
And, in alignment with the Good Mood Diet, which is all about never feeling hungry or cranky because you are depriving yourself, a 2006 study published in the esteemed Journal of the American College of Nutrition, showed that:
While The Good Mood Diet doesn’t focus on counting calories, that’s the sort of tallying that will lift anyone’s spirits and drop the pounds.
Bob Condor
It’s important to note that all 14 days of sample menus in the book fall within the federal guidelines of 300 daily milligrams of cholesterol. That’s no accident; Dr. Kleiner designed it that way. It’s not about the egg, which you should feel free to savor each morning as you please cooked any way except with fat, but about skipping the fried and processed foods that creep into the American diet.
Saturated fats in fatty cuts of meat and whole milk (or 2 percent) can cause the body to makes it own bad type of cholesterol. Same goes, especially so, for the trans fats that come from deep frying or that show up on packaged food nutrition labels.
Here are some important numbers according to American Heart Association estimates:
- The typical large whole egg contains 213 milligrams of cholesterol or 71 percent of the suggested daily maximum for cholesterol.
- Jumbo and extra-large eggs check in at more than 90 percent of the max.
Mother Earth News, an engaging Kansas-based magazine dedicated to the return of "real food" to our tables, tested the cholesterol content of free-range chicken flocks. Their findings:
- Eggs from pasture-fed, heritage breeds had about half the cholesterol count of conventional eggs. The study, though small, is a powerful indicator that we can rely on nature to help us navigate good food and mood.
- Perhaps most head-turning is those heritage, free-range chickens are producing eggs that have twice the vitamin E, six times more beta carotene (which helps the body make vitamin A) and four times more omega-3 fats.
[Editor’s note: “Heritage” is to livestock what “heirloom” is to vegetables. According to the Sustainable Table Web site, “Heritage breeds” are traditional livestock breeds that were raised by farmers in the past, before the drastic reduction of breed variety caused by the rise of industrial agriculture.]
Some larger producers are catching on, adding flax seeds and sea kelp to feed so the eggs from those chickens are higher in omega-3s. And some egg farmers have discovered that adding marigolds to the feed boosts lutein, which is an essential substance for healthy eyesight in humans.
And, in alignment with the Good Mood Diet, which is all about never feeling hungry or cranky because you are depriving yourself, a 2006 study published in the esteemed Journal of the American College of Nutrition, showed that:
- Eating an egg for breakfast instead of a bagel reduces hunger and calorie intake at not only lunchtime but over the next 24 hours. The egg eaters in the study consumed, on average, 163 calories for lunch and 418 less during the whole day.
While The Good Mood Diet doesn’t focus on counting calories, that’s the sort of tallying that will lift anyone’s spirits and drop the pounds.
Bob Condor