Eggs are an incredible health booster

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Even as the World Egg Day (the second Friday of October) was observed on Friday, it may be said that healthy eating is not about strict dietary limitations, staying unrealistically thin or depriving yourself of the foods you love.

Rather, it’s about feeling great, having more energy, and stabilizing your mood. If you feel overwhelmed by all the conflicting nutrition and diet advice out there, you’re not alone.

It seems that for every expert who tells you a certain food is good for you, you’ll find another saying exactly the opposite. You can cut through the confusion and learn how to create a tasty, varied, and healthy diet, if we know little more about easily available, affordable and eatable egg.

Did you have eggs for breakfast this morning, a question now a day’s frequently confronted by youngsters in US from their parentsIJ Eggs are the perfect choice for breakfast. The protein in eggs provides steady and sustained energy that starts your day off right. Eggs are all-natural and packed with a number of nutrients. One egg has 13 essential vitamins and minerals in varying amounts, high-quality protein and antioxidants, all for 70 calories. Eggs' nutrients can help you with weight management, muscle strength, brain function and having a healthy pregnancy. Particularly important for aiding healthy brain function and pregnancy is choline (pronounced KOH-leen), which is amply present in eggs.Nutrient-rich, all-natural eggs are a welcome addition to any diet.

The nutrient package of eggs aids in the following

•       Weight management: The high-quality protein in eggs helps you to feel fuller longer and stay energized, which contributes to maintaining a healthy weight.

•       Muscle strength and muscle-loss prevention: Research indicates that high-quality protein may help active adults build muscle strength and help prevent muscle loss in middle-aged and aging adults.

•       Healthy pregnancy: Egg yolks are an excellent source of choline, an essential nutrient that contributes to foetal brain development and helps prevent birth defects. Two eggs provide about 250 milligrams of choline, or roughly half of the recommended daily intake for pregnant and breastfeeding women.

•       Brain function: Choline also aids the brain function of adults by maintaining the structure of brain cell membranes, and is a key component of the neuro-transmitter that helps relay messages from the brain through nerves to the muscles.

•       Eye health: lutein and zeaxanthin, two antioxidants found in egg yolks, help prevent macular degeneration, a leading cause of age-related blindness. Though eggs contain a small amount of these two nutrients, research shows that the lutein from eggs may be more bio available than lutein from other food sources.

The avian egg is an important source of nutrients, containing all of the proteins, lipids, vitamins, minerals, and growth factors required by the developing embryo, as well as a number of defence factors to protect against bacterial and viral infection. Moreover, eggs are now understood to contain substances with biological functions beyond basic nutrition, and extensive research has been undertaken to identify and characterize these biologically active components. This review mainly focused on biological activities of proteins and peptides derived from egg components. Several biological activities have now been associated with egg components, including novel antimicrobial activities, ant adhesive properties, immunomodulatory, anticancer, and antihypertensive activities, antioxidant properties, protease inhibitors, nutrient bioavailability, and functional lipids, highlighting the importance of egg and egg components in human health and in disease prevention and treatment. Continued research to identify new and existing biological functions of hen egg components will help to define new methods to further improve the value of eggs as a source of numerous biologically active compounds with specific benefits for human and animal health and secure their role in the therapy and prevention of chronic and infectious disease.

People living in low-income countries, like India are particularly at risk from a number of diseases as a consequence of consuming a poor-quality diet. Poultry foods are usually without taboos and can be consumed by a family at an affordable price.

Cracking the cholesterol myth More than 40 years of research supports the role of eggs in a healthy diet. Many Americans have shied away from eggs – despite their taste, value, convenience and nutrition – for fear of dietary cholesterol. However, more than 40 years of research have shown that healthy adults can enjoy eggs without significantly impacting their risk of heart disease.

Several international health promotion organizations – including Health Canada, the Canadian Heart and Stroke Foundation, the Australian Heart Foundation and the Irish Heart Foundation – promote eggs as part of a heart-healthy diet, recognizing that they make important nutritional contributions.

Protein gives us the energy to get up and go—and keep going. Protein in food is broken down into the 20 amino acids that are the body’s basic building blocks for growth and energy, and essential for maintaining cells, tissues, and organs. While too much protein can be harmful to people with kidney disease, the latest research suggests that most of us need more high-quality protein than the current dietary recommendations. It also suggests that we need more protein as we age to maintain physical function.

(aksharda@gmail.com)

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