Eggs Are As Bad as Smoking? Organic Food Has No Benefit?  

In the past few weeks, the media has been reporting on 2 recent food studies.  They remind me of one study long ago on suicide that concluded that ice cream might be related to summer suicides.  After a review of the study, it was later deemed invalid because the real connection was that people simply ate more ice cream in the summer than they did at other times of the year.  Ice cream had nothing to do with suicide.  

The point here is that we sometimes have to take a step back with these studies (or what the media summarizes) and then simply use common sense. 

The first study relates Egg Yolk Consumption  having similar effect on arteries as smoking.  The other was that organic food has no benefit.  The study written in the journal Atherosclerosis on egg yolks, tied into a comparison to smoking.  It basically said that one was just as bad as the other in clogging arteries.  Dr. J. David Spence, a professor of neurology at Western University in Canada and his team admitted that much of their research for this study was based on a single questionnaire asking about their lifestyle and medications.  This included smoking patterns and then number of egg yolks consumed per week and the number of years they consumed them. 

So, let me get this straight-participants were asked to recall how many eggs they ate every day and if they smoked,  and over the course of several years.   I don't know about you, but I'm not too sure if I can state with accuracy what I used to eat for breakfast 3 years ago.  But that's just me. Furthermore, the data retrieved from these questionnaires could not indicate their overall dietary patterns.  Perhaps the egg questions should have included inquiries such as  "Were your eggs cooked in grease with a side of bacon, corn beef hash and pork roll or were they poached in water with a side of grapefruit?"  It seems that the methodology of this study is a bit questionable.

Then, the most recent was that of a Stanford Study on Organic food with raging headlines in the media stating that organic food is no better for you than conventionally grown food.  First, the results of the study  stated that the the nutritional value of organic food is the same as conventionally grown foods.  This may be true in what the study tested.  (However, there are plenty of other studies that show more favorable nutrition from organic).  The missed message is the real reason to buy organic food.

We eat organic food because of what it does not have: namely, pesticides, pollutants, chemicals, carcinogens, and hormones, antibiotics and steroids (in the case of milk and meat).  Yes, this is the stuff that can make you really sick.

With these 2 studies completely  distorted by the media, there was an outcry of articles countering them.  However, it didn't seem to make the same media headlines leaving consumers more confused  than ever.

Regarding eggs, they are truly one of nature's perfect foods with incredible protein and nutrient rich-mostly located in the yolk!  For those who are afraid of the cholesterol, there is cholesterol-but it is the good kind and raises your good cholesterol level.  As I said in last week's newsletter, we need good cholesterol and eggs are a great source.

Regarding organic food, it is worth the extra dollars to protect you and your family against the poisons added in conventional food.

Education is the key and the bottom line is that if a study sounds too questionable, it just may be.