By David Blyweiss, M.D., Advanced Natural Wellness

June 08, 2013

• Eggs aren’t the artery-clogging enemy you thought they were
• These other breakfast favorites increase your risk of premature death by 44%
• How to put a protein-filled breakfast (and more!) on your table again

When I was growing up we were still eating full-sized breakfasts every morning. And by full-sized I don’t mean a bowl of Fruit Loops or Cheerios.

Back then a real breakfast consisted of eggs accompanied by a side of meat.

Sometimes we had steak with our eggs. Other times it was sausage or bacon. And waking up to the smell of breakfast cooking in the morning always made it easy to get out of bed.

All of that changed when we learned eggs were killing us by clogging our arteries with cholesterol.

Once that happened, Americans traded in their cooking pans for cereal bowls.

In other words, our traditional, high protein breakfasts were replaced with processed, sugary and high-glycemic cereals that left our stomachs growling with hunger well before lunch time.

Now, many years later, we finally know the truth: Eggs aren’t the artery-clogging enemy they were previously thought to be!

A large new meta-analysis finds eating an egg every day doesn’t increase your risk of heart attack. And it doesn’t raise your risk of stroke, either.

In fact, the evidence shows just the opposite.

It turns out the nutrients in eggs may actually be protective. The study found eggs not only lower the risk of cardiovascular disease, they also raise good (HDL) cholesterol levels.

And do you know what else?

People who had higher egg consumption had a 25% lower risk of suffering a hemorrhagic stroke. This is the type of stroke when a blood vessel bursts inside the brain.

Now this data isn’t from some tiny, little study that followed a small group of people for just a year or two. It’s from a meta-analysis of eight well-documented studies. Almost 475,000 people were involved. And all the studies lasted between eight and 22 years.

And here’s the real humdinger…

The researchers suggest the reason eggs were targeted as the “bad guy” here was for one very simple reason: People who eat eggs often eat processed meats – like bacon, ham and sausage – with them!

And that’s where the real problem lies.
Processed meats have become pervasive in our society. And it’s not limited to breakfast meats like sausage, bacon and ham.

Hot dogs, kielbasa, corned beef, pastrami, lunchmeats, pepperoni… all of them are bad for you.

These American “mainstays” are loaded with sodium, colorings, corn syrup and a lot of other things you shouldn’t be ingesting. And it’s showing up in our health.

• People who regularly eat processed meats are 38% more likely to develop diabetes.
• Consumption of processed meats significantly increases the risk of stroke in men.
• Eating processed meat is associated with a 42% higher risk of coronary heart disease.

With all of this in mind, you probably won’t be too surprised by the next bit of news.

A new study discovered eating processed meat can increase your risk of dying well before your time. To put it bluntly, those submarine sandwiches, BLT’s, hot dogs and sausage-filled breakfasts may be sending you to the grave.

And once again, this data isn’t coming from some off-the-wall study. These results come from the long-running European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) study.

This massive study was initiated in 1992 and is the largest research effort on diet and health ever undertaken. In fact, it involves almost a half million people in 10 countries.

Here’s what the researchers found:

People who ate more than 5.6 ounces of processed meat each day had an increased risk of dying of cardiovascular disease compared to those who ate less than about .7 of an ounce daily. They also had a higher risk of dying from cancer or other causes.

In the end, eating processed meat increased the risk of premature death by a whopping 44%.

I’m not in the least bit happy with these numbers. So I’m going to give you the same advice I give my patients…

First, I think it’s important for all of us to get back to eating a protein-filled breakfast. It’s much healthier – and filling – than spooning down a bowl of Chex or Rice Crispies. And you can do it without processed meats.

Now that you know eggs aren’t going to kill you, I suggest sticking with the old American standard: Steak and eggs.

But don’t pick any old steak. Instead, buy the healthiest steak you can find. This means selecting beef from grass-fed cattle that’s free of hormones and antibiotics.

Second, let’s get a handle on your lunch.

Grabbing a deli sandwich – or brown-bagging a sandwich made of lunchmeat – is an easy and inexpensive way to go. However, it’s not the healthiest.

It’s very simple to plan a weekend dinner that includes roast beef, chicken or turkey breast. The great thing about this is that, when you cook natural grass-fed beef or cage free poultry in your own home, you know exactly what is in it.

After the meal, thinly slice the leftovers and freeze them in sandwich-sized portions. Then pull them out of the freezer as needed. During the week you can use the meat for salads, sandwiches and wraps.

It may be a little more work, but it’s inexpensive and will keep you and your family healthier and happier in the long run. (And as an added benefit, you get a great weekend dinner for your entire family to enjoy at the table together!)

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Resources:

Rong Y, Chen L, Zhu T, Song Y, Yu M, Shan Z, Sands A, Hu FB, Liu L. Egg consumption and risk of coronary heart disease and stroke: dose-response meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies. BMJ. 2013 Jan 7;346:e8539.

Vang A, Singh PN, Lee JW, Haddad EH, Brinegar CH. Meats, processed meats, obesity, weight gain and occurrence of diabetes among adults: findings from Adventist Health Studies. Ann Nutr Metab. 2008;52(2):96-104. Epub 2008 Mar 18.

Larsson SC, Virtamo J, Wolk A. Red meat consumption and risk of stroke in Swedish men. Am J Clin Nutr. 2011 Aug;94(2):417-21. Epub 2011 Jun 8.

Micha R, Wallace SK, Mozaffarian D. Red and processed meat consumption and risk of incident coronary heart disease, stroke, and diabetes mellitus: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Circulation. 2010 Jun 1;121(21):2271-83. Epub 2010 May 17.

Rohrmann S, Overvad K, Bueno-de-Mesquita HB, et al. Meat consumption and mortality – results from the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition. BMC Med. 2013 Mar 7;11:63.