[tweetmeme] Mention cholesterol and what food jumps to mind? Probably the egg. Since the early 1980’s it has been the much maligned food icon of high cholesterol. True, it is high in cholesterol but it has hardly any saturated fat which, as we now know, is the real culprit that sends our cholesterol levels soaring. A ‘big breakfast’ of eggs with fatty bacon, sausages and toast lathered with butter will certainly send up your cholesterol level. The bacon, sausages and butter will do a pretty good job of that even without the eggs! But egg sandwiches (without butter), poached eggs, nicoise salad (hard boiled eggs, green beans, tuna, potato, tomatoes with a garlic, balsamic vinegar and olive oil dressing), scrambled eggs or omelette with tomatoes, mushrooms, onions and herbs are all fantastic nutritious meals.

So it was with a collective sigh of relief that we heard the good news – we’re finally allowed to eat more than 3 eggs a week. At least that’s the latest decision made by the Australian Heart Foundation who now allow up to six eggs a week. It follows similar relaxing of egg restrictions by the Irish and British Heart Foundations based on the latest science.

It’s never felt quite right to limit something as nutritious and unadulterated as an egg. And I wonder, during these past 30 or 40 years of minimal eggs, what we have eaten in its place – perhaps a low fibre, sugary cereal for breakfast or maybe chocolate nut spread sandwiches for lunch? Just a few weeks ago a friend asked me if it was OK to give her kids more than three eggs a week. “They really love eggs,” she explained. “And I feel mean saying they can’t have them.” I told her that of course she could give them more – and there it was again, that sigh of relief.

Eggs are high in protein, they have great satiety value which means you won’t feel hungry for ages after eating them, and they have all sorts of antioxidants and other nutrients for good health. The yellow colour of the yolk is from an antioxidant called lutein. It helps protect the rods and cones at the back of your eye so you are less likely to suffer macular degeneration. Even more interesting is a nutrient called choline. It has anti-inflammatory effects and, like folate, is critical for normal development of the brain. That’s a whole story in itself which I’ll write about sometime soon.

See also: my article on 15 eggs a day!

1. Yoghurt – ideally plain, reduced fat and as fresh as possible

‘Friendly’ bugs to help digestion, and calcium to keep bones strong and blood pressure down.

2. Fish, especially salmon and tuna

Vitamin B12 and Omega-3 fats for healthy blood, joints and eyes. People who eat fish at least once a week have a much lower risk of age-related macular degeneration. Omega-3 fats from canola oil, flaxseed and walnuts, as well as monounsaturated fats from avocado and olive oil also seem to reduce the risk (Arch Opthalmol, 2006).

3. Nuts

Fibre, unsaturated fat and vitamin E for a healthy heart, digestive system and eyes (walnuts)

4. Avocado

Monounsaturated fat, vitamin E, folate and vitamin B6 for a healthy heart, brain, immune system and eyes

5. Rolled oats

Soluble fibre & resistant starch for a healthy bowel and to reduce cholesterol, plus zinc, iron, potassium, vitamin E

6. Green tea

Less caffeine and lots of antioxidants

7. Legumes – dried beans, baked beans, split peas, lentils

Soluble fibre and resistant starch for a healthy bowel, lower cholesterol and weight control

8. The ‘Greens’ – spinach, silverbeet, Asian greens, broccoli

Vitamin A, C, K, folate and antioxidants

9. Berries

Vitamin C and antioxidants

10. Oranges, lemons and grapefruit (marmalade doesn’t count!)

Vitamin C and antioxidants

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People who eat a Mediterranean-style diet with lots of vegetables, legumes, fruit, fish, wholegrains and monounsaturated fat (mostly olive oil) with some yoghurt, cheese and wine seem to live longer (BMJ, 2005)

My favourite coffee is a bowl of trim latte from Zarbos – a popular deli in Auckland. A bowl? Yes it really is a bowl with no handle. Double shot coffee and lots of reduced fat milk served with a tiny morsel of chocolate brownie on the side – yum! All that milk gives me about a third of my daily calcium needs and at least 200mg caffeine to keep me hyped for the rest of the day. A teaspoon of instant coffee has about 80mg caffeine and tea has less.  Health experts recommend we drink no more than 3 or 4 cups of coffee a day. One bowl of latte would almost meet the daily limit!

People vary in their sensitivity to coffee and caffeine – the stimulant in coffee, tea and cocoa. For some people, even one cup of coffee will set their heart racing and their hands trembling. And caffeine isn’t the only substance in coffee that people can be sensitive to.

I am currently on a self-imposed coffee restriction to alleviate arthritis in my hand. Cut the coffee and the arthritis goes. I’ve limited myself to one a week – although I don’t always stick to it! When I first worked out this coffee – arthritis link I could find no research proving it. But in the past 10 years a number of studies have found a link between excessive coffee intake and an increase in arthritic factor – a precursor to arthritis – in people who are genetically pre-disposed. Without any genetic tests I could guess that I have the coffee sensitive gene. I don’t think researchers have yet found the exact substance in coffee that causes this problem.

So now I am drinking mostly tea – black tea for breakfast, earl grey tea in the morning, green tea in the afternoon and chamomile at night. Nothing like a bit of variety! It’s likely doing wonders for my health – all those antioxidants. But I do miss meeting friends for coffee – the smell, the milky froth swirled into the shape of a leaf and the sublime flavour when it’s made properly. It just doesn’t seem right to pay $3 for a lonely tea bag floating in a pot of boiling water. I may as well stay home and write on my blog!

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Related article:
How do you like your coffee?

A man in one of my lectures once told me that his father had a simple rule for ensuring good health – eat colours. This was before the explosion of artificial colours into our food and decades before nutritionists latched onto ‘eating colours’ as a great health promotion message. The old advice is often the best!

To eat colours means you have to eat a spectrum of different foods including plenty of fruit and vegetables. Despite many health messages changing over the years, the call to eat more fruit and vegetables has never changed. The old saying, “An apple a day keeps the doctor away” is just as true today as it ever was. We now know that apples are high in a flavonoid called quercetin which acts as an anti-oxidant, reducing DNA damage and stopping cancer activating enzymes in the body.

But we can’t live on apples alone, and we also can’t pull out one substance, put it in a pill and think that will keep us healthy. It’s the combination of many different foods that gives us all the vitamins, minerals, fibre and protective phyto (plant)-chemicals. And when those foods are mostly from plants, as the World Cancer Research Fund recommends, you will have a plate full of colour!

Stop reading right now. Take a look outside. How many colours of nature can you see? What colour is the sky? Look closely at a flower. Notice how intense and intricate the colour and design are. In our hectic rush of living it’s easy to overlook the wonders of nature. But what if our world had no colour? What a drab place to live. Now think of what you eat. Do you eat a drab diet or is it as exciting and colourful as nature intended it to be? Colours in nature have many functions and one of these is to make food appealing and interesting for us to eat. So drop that beige bun with the fake pink icing and munch on some natural colours instead!