Regardless on where you stand on the breakfast front, one food seems to unite even those who profane the idea of eating in the morning: eggs. Cereal you can take or leave, smashed avo on toast is something reserved for the hipsters and those inclined to throw their money away at a restaurant simply for taking a fork to the green mush, but eggs…there’s just so much variety offered up in the one food. Whether it’s scrambled, fried, or poached, you can’t go wrong with eggs in the morning. You can however go wrong with egg sandwiches in the office – please, show some decorum fellas, you know these things smell like farts.
As it happens, eggs are so beloved there’s a diet centred around eating them in order to help you lose weight. And unlike most diets that have such complex and ridiculous names that garner something of an eye-roll to merely utter them in public, this one is rather straightforward: The Egg Diet.
This low-calorie, low-carb, high-protein eating plan is centred on the idea that it can lead to rapid weight loss without sacrificing muscle mass. According to Ilyse Schapiro R.D., “This fad diet is based around the idea that eggs are a nutrient-dense, inexpensive, and complete protein source, but rather than eating highly processed, packaged, and artificial foods, The Egg Diet is centred around a whole-food approach.”
Some variations of the diet include eating only hard-boiled eggs while others offer more variety, but essentially you’ll be eating three meals per day without any snacks. These meals tend to include lean proteins, 1 to 2 servings of fruit per day, plenty of dark, leafy greens and non-starchy vegetables and of course, plenty of water or any zero-calorie beverage.
As diets go, it could be on the better side but it’s still a fad. Yes you will see results in terms of weight loss, but it’s restrictive and so isn’t sustainable. Schapiro explains: “Given that all versions of The Egg Diet result in eating fewer calories, it is likely that you will achieve short-term weight loss. However, this plan is too restrictive and regimented to be considered a well-balanced, sustainable way of eating.”
According to Lyssie Lakatos, R.D.N., “The problem comes in when it comes to real-life and not wanting to feel so limited and follow such a strict diet all of the time.” Lakatos adds, “Also, if you were to continue on the diet long-term, you’d miss out on a lot of important vitamins and minerals that you need to keep you healthy.”
With this in mind then, just what is a healthy number of eggs to consume daily? The verdict isn’t quite out yet, but the American Heart Association generally recommends one egg, or two egg whites, per day as part of a healthy diet. This might be outdated though as it was thought eggs contained too much cholesterol in egg yolks, but research has found this has little effect on raising total and ‘bad’ LDL cholesterol levels. So, it seems we can take into our scrambled eggs as often as we please.
