making them the perfect meal or snack for the millions who are car-
bohydrate intolerant. Ounce per ounce, eggs are also your best food
buy with hardly any waste. And, with so many ways of preparing
them, eggs are delicious. While most people love the taste of eggs,
many are still concerned about eating them because of cholesterol.
For most people, eggs can be part of a healthy food plan. I eat sever-
al whole eggs every day. In the chapter on heart disease I’ll address
the issue of cholesterol, and how adding more eggs to your diet can
actually decrease your cardiovascular risk.
Eggs are only as healthy as the hens that lay them, since the nutri-
tional make-up of eggs, especially the fat, depends upon what the
chickens eat. For this reason you should avoid run-of-the-mill gro-
cery-store eggs that have been produced in chicken factories.
Unfortunately this includes most eggs on the market. The healthiest
eggs come from organic, free-range hens. Even better; buy eggs from
a local farmer who lets chickens eat healthy, wild food and organic
feed. Free-range means that the hens are allowed to roam where they
can eat bugs and vegetable matter, yielding eggs with a better fat pro-
file, with more monounsaturated fat and more essential fatty acids.
So-called “omega 3” eggs come from chickens fed flaxseeds. Often
these hens are not free-range nor certified organic and are still housed
in very crowded hen factories.Here’s the Beef
It’s no bull — if you want to be healthy, beef really is “what’s for din-
ner.” Consider that just 3 ounces of lean porterhouse contains 20
grams of protein, and just 6 grams of saturated fat, balanced by a
healthy 7 grams of heart-friendly monounsaturated fat. In addition to
being an excellent source of high-quality protein, beef is also rich in B
vitamins, glutamine, calcium, magnesium, iron, zinc and other vital
nutrients. Organic and natural beef have not been treated with antibi-
otics or given growth-stimulating hormones.
You can buy naturally raised meats in some grocery and health-
food stores, and local sources may be even better. Look for nearby
farms and ranches that sell meat from animals that have been raised
on grass, not fed corn and without the use of growth hormones,
antibiotics and other chemicals used by most stock-growers. Whether90 • IN FITNESS AND IN HEALTH