Confused about eggs? This might be the answer

Have you ever wondered why there are many kinds of eggs at grocery stores? Have you ever been confused on which egg brand to choose? Well, I am not surprised.

With so many egg brands nowadays claiming that theirs is superior among the others, it’s not hard to see why so many people are confused now. One brand claims theirs has higher omega-3. Another one claims theirs has higher omega-6. Another claims less cholesterol level. To make things more complicated, there are regular chicken eggs and kampong chicken eggs, which are usually brighter in color and smaller. Basically, you are faced by choices you do not know how to choose. It is not your fault though.

The food industry has gone wild that everyone can make claims on his own without any proof. Even worse, these claims, not only complicate things, but also allow them to increase the price. Just compare normal eggs without any special claim with the one that has lower cholesterol and you will know how big the price difference is.

So let me try to ease you burden in choosing your food, in this case eggs. Here we go. Lower cholesterol egg? Do you need it? NOPE. You don’t really need it UNLESS you have health history related to hypertension, heart attack, and stroke. If you don’t have any of those and you eat healthy, you don’t need to worry so much about cholesterol (see “Cholesterol, FRIEND or VILLAIN?”)

Egg with higher omega-6? HELL NO. It’s a big NO for this. Obviously, people who make this claim for their eggs really want to ruin their business or simply, they really don’t know anything about food, nutrition, and what people nowadays need from their food. If I happened to meet the people making this claim, I would say, “C’mon people. Don’t you know anything at all?? WE DO NOT NEED ANY MORE OMEGA-6 FROM EGGS OK??”. Yes I am being very emotional now talking about this because it is just SO DUMB (probably the DUMBEST THING TO DO) to offer people more omega-6, while actually, our modern diet has already offered MUCH MORE, I mean MUCH MUCH MORE OF THAT (can be as much as 6 TIMES THE AMOUNT WE NEED). So next time you come across with this kind of eggs, you know what to do.

It leaves us with kampong chicken egg and higher omega-3 eggs. These are the type of eggs you want to put in your grocery basket. As I said, we don’t need anymore omega-6, but WE DO NEED A LOT OF OMEGA-3 to balance out our omega-6 intake. Ideally, the ratio between omega-3 and omega-6 in our diet should be 1:1 or 1:3 the most (see “EFA Balance and the Consequences” for more on the omega-3:omega-6 balance). But thanks to processed foods and hydrogenated oils, the ratio has now become as crazy as 1:20 in extreme cases according to Dr. Gabe Mirkin, no exaggerating here. So, you know what to do, increase intake of omega-3 and reduce intake of omega-6 from processed food/oil.

I generally prefer kampong chicken eggs than higher omega-3 eggs. Higher omega-3 eggs are produced by a carefully constructed diet on the chicken. However, kampong chicken eggs are produced by a natural diet on the chicken. In this case, the chicken is let to roam free and eat its own natural diet, including worms and bugs that are seldom in the chicken farm diet. So, the best choice for eggs is kampong chicken eggs and if this is not available, the second best choice is higher omega-3 eggs.

So, there you go. You should have better idea now how to choose your eggs to increase you omega-3 intake and balance your omega-3:omega-6 ratio. More on why this ratio has to be balance on another article.

Till then, don’t get lost in your grocery store because when it comes to eggs, you know what to do.

Tobias Kananggar Ganda
AMFPT Certified Personal Trainer
AMFPT Certified Sport Nutritionist
Creator of RoadToSixPack.blogspot.com

Cholesterol: FRIEND or VILLAIN??

In my previous newsletter, “The real criminal in our food chain”, I talked about how bad trans fat is. It can transform seemingly “healthy” or “not so bad” food into “junkier-than-junk” food.

Now, let me talk about another common misconception circling around our society today, CHOLESTEROL. But first, let me warn you, everything you are about to read from this point onward will really shake your belief about cholesterol. You might even have argument with yourself, your friends, or your personal doctor who have been telling you A LOT OF BAD THINGS about cholesterol.

For me, CHOLESTEROL is not that bad. In fact, I am glad that I have cholesterol in my body because simply it is good to have it (I know, I know. After reading up to this point, you will most probably think, “This guy is insane!! He is glad to have cholesterol and now saying it is good!!”). Well, just read on and at the end, I am pretty sure you will AGREE with me.

We all know that heart disease, failure, heart attack, and hypertension have been one of the leading killers in today’s world. THAT IS TRUTH. But blaming cholesterol for all that?? That is not really fair. Here is why.

As science continues to improve, more and more evidence has shown that the ARTERIAL INFLAMMATION WITHIN THE BODY is the root cause of heart disease. The inflammation itself is caused by many personal factors, such as stress, smoking, viruses, consumption of refined/hydrogenated oil (which contains trans fat as I have mentioned), an imbalance of omega-6 polyunsaturated fats to omega-3 polyunsaturated fats in the diet, excess refined sugars, etc.

Although it is true that cholesterol is the one forming plaque/arterial deposit (which is mostly being blamed for heart disease), not so many people understand why it does that. When ARTERIAL INFLAMMATION occurs, the cholesterol acts as a HEALING SUBSTANCE. It responds to arterial inflammation by getting deposited in combination with other substances, forming “arterial deposit” which acts as a healing agent on the artery.

Basically, as long as you have internal inflammation, this plaque will be formed regardless of your cholesterol levels. In other words, if you don’t have any inflammation inside your body, high cholesterol level will just keep circulating in your body without forming “plaque” in your artery. Therefore, it is more important to control your artery inflammation rather than trying to lower your cholesterol level.

You may ask, “If cholesterol is actually good, why are medical industries pushing everyone to lower their cholesterol?” Well, one innocent answer would be because it is based on flawed medical studies from decades ago that have never been validated since it has been there for a long time. Another reason is because with such misconception circling around in society, “cholesterol control” drug companies will be able to sell their products more easily.

Still not convinced? Check these out: “The Hidden Truth About Cholesterol Lowering Drugs” by Shane Ellison and “The Cholesterol Myths” by Dr. Uffe Ravnskov (MD, PhD).

So now, don’t worry about the cholesterol levels anymore. Let’s start worrying about the level of artery inflammation in our bodies. You can check the level of your artery inflammation by CRP or homocysteine tests. More importantly, you can control it by living a healthy lifestyle.

Finally, here is to a life in healthy lifestyle

Tobias KG
AMFPT Certified Personal Trainer
AMFPT Certified Sport Nutritionist
Creator of RoadToSixPack.blogspot.com

Fast Food is Healthy?? Give me a break -> The REAL CRIMINAL in our food chain

HEYYY!!! It’s been quite some time, eh? I hope you are still on the RIGHT road to six pack., still pumping up the iron and true to the healthy and natural diet. By the way, have you tried my breakfast recipe? It is simple, easy to prepare, but most importantly, it is DELICIOUS, HEALTHY, and FULFILLING. If you haven’t already, give it a shot and let me know what you think.

Now, here is the story I wanna share with you.

Yesterday, on my way back home from my office (that’s right, I have office work too), I took a public train. It was very crowded, which means so many people closely surrounded me. Among them, there was a couple; talking about the food they took that day for lunch (I was not really listening at first, but because they stood pretty close to me, I could overhear them).

As far as I can recall, this is the conversation:

(They were talking about something else before this but their topic was not really interested to me….until….)

Girl: “What did you eat today for lunch?”
Guy: “I ate Subway” (Subway is a fast food franchise. Sandwich is their main product)
Girl: (shocked) “Wah, you ate subway again??”
Guy: “Yeah, no choice” (I don’t know why. You always have choices for food)
Girl: “Yeah but subway is so unhealthy” (This is where it became more interesting)
Guy: “But it is definitely healthier than KFC or McD” (Gotta agree with this one)
Girl: (insisting) “But still it is unhealthy”
Guy: (stay quiet)
Girl: “Try to eat the normal one tomorrow, ok?” (By “normal” I presume any usual food from Asian-cuisine-loaded food court)

(Their conversation continued but I already had something else in my mind after what the girl said)

Here is what was in my mind. You think subway is unhealthy?? Think again. You might not believe this but I eat Subway (tuna, footlong) like almost 2-3 times per week because that is THE ONLY outside food I find “healthy” enough for me. To be more specific, tuna sandwich is the ONLY ONE HEALTHY enough among other choices they have. That’s right, even the “normal” food in Asian food court is not as healthy as that tuna sandwich.

I can say this because I know what most people don’t or they think they do but they are wrong (just like the girl). Don’t blame yourself. This is partly because of millions of misleading advertisement out there, claiming their products are healthy, etc, etc. (Just for example: Check this article, http://www.truthaboutabs.com/the-canola-oil-deception.html, by Mike Geary, an expert in nutrition, about “Healthy” Canola oil)

Let’s think about it. What do you buy in Asian food court? Fried rice? Deep fried meat/chicken/pork/fish? Chicken/beef sausage? Nuggets?

Let’s take a look. Deep fried? Fried rice? It needs cooking oil. For lower cost, CERTAINLY they use the cheapest available cooking oil in market which means, “normal” hydrogenated oil (that is probably why the girl said normal food, because it uses normal cooking oil). Here is the deal with any normal oil. IT HAS TRANS FAT. Trans fat is the real criminal behind obesity, fat gain, high cholesterol, hypertension, heart attack, and the list goes on. That is the truth. Too bad not so many people know about this truth (just like the girl)

How about chicken/beef sausage and nuggets? They are PROCESSED FOODS. That’s it. You never know what have been added to those sausages and nuggets (most probably, harmful chemicals/ingredients that potentially turn to TRANS FAT). That is why I said not all Subway sandwiches are healthy, depends on your choice (To verify if tuna is healthy, just go to supermarket and check the ingredient of canned tuna chunk in water. It is just tuna, water and salt. What is unhealthy about that??)

I am not saying that you can replace your healthy diet entirely with Subway tuna sandwich. I am just saying, subway tuna sandwich is WAY better than “normal food” with “normal” trans fat (that is why it is “normal” to have obesity, hypertension, heart attack, or high cholesterol in today’s world)

I can go all night talking about this “conflicting” statement I have presented here. You might think, “This guy is a nutritionist? I can’t believe it. He actually recommends fast food over usual food. IT’S INSANE.” I tell you this, because I am a nutritionist, I know what you don’t know and I know what is right/wrong when it comes to food and nutrition.

So here is THE POINT here. The real EVIL ENEMY is not the fast food itself, it is THE TRANS FAT hiding behind the processed foods or the cooking oil used (except extra virgin olive oil).

Finally, SAY NO TO TRANS FAT!

Tobias KG
AMFPT Certified Personal Trainer
AMFPT Certified Sport Nutritionist
Creator of RoadToSixPack.blogspot.com