Live Longer: Eggs & Your Heart

Live Longer: Eggs & Your Heart

This summer, the Telluride Ski Resort and The Peaks Resort & Spa are hosting a series of week-long wellness intensives under the banner of Live Longer Retreat. The Big Idea is to support your (recurring) New Year’s resolution to get really healthy and therefore live longer – and well. Half the year is in the rear view mirror. What progress have you made?

With an evidence-based, scientific approach to health and longevity and featuring an experienced staff of medical professionals, personal trainers, Pilates and yoga instructors, dietitians, and chefs, all focused on your unique wellness profile, each Live Longer Retreat is one-of-kind in the U.S. .

The intensives, which are limited to only 10 – 15 participants, include personal consultations, hiking, spinning, yoga, Pilates, talks and demonstrations related to nutrition, cooking classes, and more.

Dates this summer/fall season are July 15 – July 21; August 19 – August 25; and September 27 – September 30.

The program is led by Dr. Alan Safdi, a world-renowned internist and gastroenterologist with encyclopedic knowledge of mind-body wellness and preventative medicine. Dr. Safdi also has a gift for delivering evidence-based medical findings for healthier living in easily digestible sound bytes.

In the run-up to the retreats, Dr. Safdi is posting regular updates on Telluride Inside… and Out based on the latest, closely vetted research about subjects in the field of health, wellness and longevity. 

This week, Dr. Safdi touts a study about eggs and cardiovascular disease. Just how concerned – or not – should you be?

Feel free to sign up now to participate in a Live Longer Retreat   or call 1-877-448-5416 for further information. 

A recent large, prospective study assessed the link between egg consumption and cardiovascular disease deaths.

Eggs are highly nutritious, but concerns over cholesterol content have led to dietary avoidance among many. The chief concern about dietary fats has been their role in promoting or protecting against coronary heart disease; other concerns relate to their possible roles in the genesis of obesity and cancers.

The study concluded that the overall body of research indicates the type of fat consumed is far more important than the proportion of calories from total fat.

Those in the large study of over 28,000 participants with an average follow up was 9.8 years, did not have any cardiovascular disease at the beginning of the investigation. Eating one egg a day was not associated with any increase at all in cardiovascular deaths or other causes of mortality. There was also slight decrease in stroke risk, but that result requires deeper follow-up.

An additional study in regards to eggs, but with different end points was published last year, a fascinating large review of numerous research projects of randomized nutritional intervention.

That study analyzed the impact of egg consumption on cardiovascular risk factors in individuals with type 2 diabetes and at risk for developing diabetes. Intake of 6 to 12 eggs per week had no effect on plasma concentrations of total cholesterol, low–density lipoprotein–cholesterol, triglycerides, fasting glucose, insulin or C–reactive protein in all studies that reported those outcomes in comparison with control groups.

Bottom line: Do not focus on trying to restrict total fat intake; instead, increase consumption of minimally processed, bioactive-rich foods like fruits, nuts, vegetables, legumes, and whole-grain products, which are natural alternatives to foods high in animal and hydrogenated fats, starch, and sugars.

These studies do not give you permission to serve up your eggs with any four-legged animal meat – like bacon. Be careful what sides accompany your eggs and how they are cooked.

For further confirmation, check out this article published by Harvard.

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