by Mike Geary, Certified Nutrition Specialist, Certified Personal Trainer
Author – The Truth About 6-Pack Abs
I was on a weekend trip with some friends recently and one of my friends was cooking breakfast for the whole group. I went over to see what he was cooking and saw he was getting ready to make a big batch of eggs.
Well, to my shock and horror, I noticed that he was cracking the eggs open and screening the egg whites into a bowl and throwing out the egg yolks. I asked him why the heck he was throwing out the egg yolks, and he replied something like this…
“because I thought the egg yolks were terrible for you…that’s where all the nasty fat and cholesterol is”.
And I replied, “you mean that’s where all of the nutrition is!”
This is a perfect example of how confused most people are about nutrition. In a world full of misinformation about nutrition, somehow most people now mistakenly think that the egg yolk is the worst part of the egg, when in fact, the YOLK IS THE HEALTHIEST PART OF THE EGG!
By throwing out the yolk and only eating egg whites, you’re essentially throwing out the most nutrient dense, antioxidant-rich, vitamin and mineral loaded portion of the egg. The yolks contain so many B-vitamins, trace minerals, vitamin A, folate, choline, lutein, and other powerful nutrients… it’s not even worth trying to list them all.
In fact, the egg whites are almost devoid of nutrition compared to the yolks.
Even the protein in egg whites isn’t as powerful without the yolks to balance out the amino acid profile and make the protein more bio-available. Not to even mention that the egg yolks from free range chickens are loaded with healthy omega-3 fatty acids.
Yolks contain more than 90% of the calcium, iron, phosphorus, zinc, thiamin, B6, folate, and B12, and panthothenic acid of the egg. In addition, the yolks contain ALL of the fat soluble vitamins A, D, E, and K in the egg, as well as ALL of the essential fatty acids (EFAs).
And now the common objection I get all the time when I say that the yolks are the most nutritious part of the egg…
“But I heard that whole eggs will skyrocket my cholesterol through the roof”
No, this is FALSE!
First of all, when you eat a food that contains a high amount of dietary cholesterol such as eggs, your body down-regulates it’s internal production of cholesterol to balance things out.
On the other hand, if you don’t eat enough cholesterol, your body simply produces more since cholesterol has dozens of important vital functions in the body.
healthy whole eggsAnd here’s where it gets even more interesting…
There have been plenty of studies lately that indicate that eating whole eggs actually raises your good HDL cholesterol to a higher degree than LDL cholesterol, thereby improving your overall cholesterol ratio and blood chemistry.
And 3rd… high cholesterol is NOT a disease! Heart disease is a disease…but high cholesterol is NOT. Cholesterol is actually a VERY important substance in your body and has vitally important functions… it is DEAD WRONG to try to “lower your cholesterol” just because of pharmaceutical companies propaganda that everyone on the planet should be on statin drugs.
If you’re interested in this topic of cholesterol specifically, I have another article listed at the bottom of this page about why trying to attack cholesterol is a mistake, and what the REAL deadly risk factors actually are.
In addition, the yolks contain the antioxidant lutein as well as other antioxidants which can help protect you from inflammation within your body (the REAL culprit in heart disease, not dietary cholesterol!), giving yet another reason why the yolks are actually GOOD for you, and not detrimental.
To help bring even more proof that whole eggs are better for you than egg whites, I recently read a University of Connecticut study that showed that a group of men in the study that ate 3 eggs per day for 12 weeks while on a reduced carb, higher fat diet increased their HDL good cholesterol by 20%, while their LDL bad cholesterol stayed the same during the study. However, the group that ate egg substitutes (egg whites) saw no change in either and did not see the improvement in good cholesterol (remember that higher HDL levels are associated with lower risk of heart disease) that the whole egg eaters did.
So I hope we’ve established that whole eggs are not some evil food that will wreck your body… instead whole eggs are FAR superior to egg whites.
But what about the extra calories in the yolks?
This is actually a non-issue and here’s why… even though egg yolks contain more calories than just eating the egg whites, the yolks have such a high micro-nutrient density in those calories, that it increases your overall nutrient density per calorie you consume. Essentially, what this does is help to regulate your appetite for the remainder of the day, so you end up eating less calories overall. In addition, the healthy fats in the egg yolks help to maintain a good level of fat-burning hormones in your body.
Overall, this means that the extra fats (healthy fats) and calories from the yolk are so nutrient-dense that they actually HELP you to burn off body fat!
Also, your normal supermarket eggs coming from mass factory farming just don’t compare nutritionally with organic free range eggs from healthy chickens that are allowed to roam freely and eat a more natural diet. Your typical cheap grocery store eggs will have lower nutrient levels and a higher omega-6 level and lower omega-3 level. On the other hand, the cage-free organic eggs from healthier chickens allowed to eat more natural feed and roam freely will have much higher vitamin and mineral levels and a more balanced healthier omega-3 to omega-6 fatty acid ratio.
I recently compared eggs I bought at the grocery store with a batch of eggs I got at a farm stand where the chickens were free roaming and healthy.
Most people don’t realize that there’s a major difference because they’ve never bought real eggs from healthy chickens… The eggs from the grocery store had pale yellow yolks and thin weak shells. On the other hand, the healthier free range eggs from the local farm had strong thick shells and deep orange colored yolks indicating much higher nutrition levels and carotenoids… and just a healthier egg in general.
This is due to the fact that a free-roaming hen allowed to roam on plenty of land will eat a variety of greens, insects, worms, etc transferring MUCH higher levels of nutrients to the eggs compared to an unhealthy hen that is trapped inside a dark factory farm hen house in horrible conditions and fed nothing but piles of corn and soy. It’s a DRASTIC difference in the nutrition that you get from the egg.
So next time a health or fitness professional tells you that egg whites are superior (because of their “fat-phobic” mentality towards dietary fats), you can quietly ignore their advice knowing that you now understand the REAL deal about egg yolks.
And can we all please STOP with this sillyness about eating an omelete with 4-5 egg whites and only 1 egg yolk… If you want real taste and real health benefits, we’d all be better off eating ALL of our eggs with the yolks.
After all, do you REALLY think that our ancestors thousands of years ago threw out the yolks and only ate the egg whites? NOT A CHANCE! They intuitively knew that all of the nutrition was found in the yolks. But our modern society has been brainwashed with misinformation about fats and cholesterol.
Another interesting study about eggs…
I read a study recently that compared groups of people that ate egg breakfasts vs groups of people that ate cereal or bagel-based breakfasts. The results of the study showed that the egg eaters lost or maintained a healthier bodyweight, while the cereal/bagel eaters gained weight.
It was hypothesized that the egg eaters actually ate less calories during the remainder of the day because their appetite was more satisfied compared to the cereal/bagel eaters who would have been more prone to wild blood sugar swings and food cravings.
Oh, one last thing I almost forgot… I personally eat 4 whole eggs almost every day with breakfast, and I maintain single-digit bodyfat most of the year.
We got an email from John this week. Even though John has suffered from lower back pain and sciatica for 18 years, he wrote specifically to tell us some “bad news” – he has no intention of buying ANY of our products! But honestly, we couldn’t be happier. We’ll let John explain…
Hi Jesse,
I suffered from sciatica and lower back pain (herniated disc) for 18 years. I was in a desk bound job sitting in front of a computer screen all day. I ate the wrong food (at the wrong times of the day); drank too much alcohol; not enough water; didn’t get enough exercise, and I was working in a very stressful environment. So, I found your website and started to look for solutions.
The first thing I did was to take your advice. I took control of my life. I was in my late fifties and lucky enough to be able to retire early and change my entire lifestyle. I reckoned I needed to do this before I got any older if I was to stand any chance of resolving my problem.
I undertook twice weekly acupuncture sessions (including cupping) for nearly a year, which helped a lot. But that wasn’t all. I also got rid of the work related stress, ate more healthily, reduced my alcohol intake, followed your advice and did some simple stretching exercises, walked up to 8 miles a day; drank more water, and learned to relax.
During this time, my lower back pain has all but disappeared. I still enjoy reading your articles and looking at the videos because you have to maintain the discipline, but I’ve reduced the pain by around 90-95%. Yes, I still feel the odd twinge, but I no longer lose sleep because of the pain and I don’t sit around in the same position for too long. I’ve embraced this new regime into my new lifestyle without any trouble at all.
So I’ll continue to value your input from the USA, but (and this is bad news for you!), I won’t need to buy any of your products unless my back pain returns.
Hopefully it will not. But I do want to thank you for helping me — not through your products — but through your inspirational messages and for giving me the confidence to believe that I COULD improve my health by taking control of my life and my lifestyle.
Let’s face it, we all have days or moments where we feel like we just don’t have the time or energy to get in that workout, do that back pain stretch… or finish that project we have been putting off. I have a video that will change the way you think about how “hard” your life is, or how “difficult” your job can be. This post will be short and to the point. I’m only asking that you do the following 3 things.
1. Watch This Video (It’s 9 Minutes Long – If you are at work and can’t watch it now, watch it when you get home. If you can’t find the time when you get home to watch something that could possibly change your life forever… well, I feel for you because you need this more than anyone)
2. Tell Me What You Think – If this video inspired you or made you rethink a lot of things in your life, please leave a comment.
3. Share This on Facebook or email it to your friends – It’s a little disturbing to me to see videos of teen nonsense that have 20 million views and a story like this has only been seen by a tiny fraction of the world population. How many people do you know that could benefit from seeing such an incredible story of devotion?
For our blog readers that are hearing impaired, here is a basic synopsis of what you’ll see in this video.
For more than 20 years, Dick Hoyt has either towed, pushed or carried Rick in a string of athletic challenges including every Boston Marathon since 1981 and, most recently, last month’s Ironman Triathlon World Championships in Hawaii.
For that event, competitors have to swim 2 1/2 miles through the ocean and then peddle a bicycle 112 miles before running a hilly, 26.2-mile marathon.
In the triathlon swim, Rick lies on his back in a rubber raft attached by rope to a wetsuit vest worn by his father. In the bike portion, Rick sits in a chair attached to the front of Dick’s bike, and on the run, Dick pushes Rick in the race chair.
This year, it took them 16 hours and 14 minutes to finish the 140-mile day of reckoning — about two hours slower than their first try, in 1989. But time isn’t the point. Teamwork is. The Hoyts are the only tandem ever to complete the Ironman Triathlon World Championships together. ‘The biggest smile you ever saw in your life’
The spark for this lifetime of patience and devotion was ignited in 1977.
The teen-age Rick asked his father if he could participate in a five-kilometer (3.1 mile) race to benefit an athlete paralyzed in an accident. Dick agreed and pushed his son the entire distance in a jerry-rigged chair that now resides in the Massachusetts Sports Hall of Fame.
As they crossed the finish line that day, Rick flashed “the biggest smile you ever saw in your life,” his father told CNN. When they got home, Rick went to a specially built computer that allowed him to communicate using a head switch to select letters and spell out words.
The message Rick typed, expressing his joy of feeling “like I wasn’t handicapped,” began an odyssey of love that continues to this day, taking father and son to competitions around the world. It even inspired Dick to learn how to swim.
“He’s the one who has motivated me because if it wasn’t for him, I wouldn’t be out there competing,” says Dick. “What I’m doing is loaning Rick my arms and legs so he can be out there competing like everybody else.”
What did you think about this video and story, please leave a comment and share your thoughts…
You’ve done it. You’ve finally made the switch to a more healthful diet. You’re eating better, choosing more organic fruits and vegetables, but what you haven’t considered, may put you at even greater risk. How are you cooking your food?
Ditch the Teflon
Who doesn’t love Teflon? Teflon coated pots and pans work beautifully — you have to work to make something to stick to it, and clean up is a breeze. What more could you ask for? Maybe cookware that doesn’t release six toxic chemicals, including at least one carcinogen. But that’s just me — I’m picky like that.
Here’s the problem. One of the chemicals that makes teflon work — known as PFOA, or perfluorooctanoate acids, just isn’t safe. A study by the Environmental Working Group, in collaboration with Commonweal in 2005 found chemicals in the umbilical cord blood of US-born infants including PFOA. A year later, researchers at John Hopkins Hospital repeated the study, finding PFOA in umbilical cord blood in 99% of 300 newborns tested.
The study’s co-author, Lynn Goldman, MD, explains, “This study confirms that, as we might have suspected, exposure to PFOS and PFOA is fairly universal; this is of particular concern because of the potential toxicity, especially developmental toxicity, for these chemicals and the lack of information about health risks at these exposure levels.”
An EPA advisory panel has tentatively labeled PFOA a “probable” cancer-causing agent. In response, in a voluntary agreement with the EPA, eight major manufacturers have agreed to eliminate 95 percent of PFOA emissions by 2010. The hold out? They still get to use the chemical for making non-stick finishes. Some countries aren’t waiting for the manufacturers to protect their citizens — they’re considering a ban on all products with PFOA.
Even scarier, DuPont, Teflon’s maker, has a brochure about not using non-stick cookware near birds. In a word — don’t. They’ll die. Talk about a canary in the coalmine — the substance kills birds in minutes, but is completely safe for me? I’m not buying into that.
PFOA is a particular concern for a couple more reasons… it stays in the body and builds up over time, and the greatest damage is likely to be done to our smallest and most vulnerable family members — our children.
Safety tip: If you must use your Teflon cookware, the biggest danger is when the nonstick coatings are over-heated, so only cook foods at low heat. Dupont itself warns that exposure to the cookware at high heat
(approximately 500 degrees) can lead to “polymer fever,” a flu-like illness that may last several days.
Well-known brand names containing PFOA include Stainmaster, Scotchgard, SilverStone, Fluron, Supra, Excalibur, Greblon, Xylon, Duracote, Resistal, Autograph and T-Fal.
When you are ready to replace your Teflon pans with safer versions, don’t just throw them away. Consider selling them to a local metal recycling business instead. These pans are categorized as “dirty aluminum” which pays less than aluminum, but at least the material is kept out of landfills.
Aluminum Alert
Ok, you’ve ditched your Teflon, so what’s left? Almost everyone has aluminum cookware in their kitchen cupboards. It seems like a perfect choice: affordable, light-weight, and thermally responsive. But aluminum is reactive too, which means acidic foods like onions and tomatoes absorb aluminum while you cook. Heat up some tomato sauce in an aluminum pan and you can expect to serve 3-6 mg of aluminum per 100 g serving.
So what’s the problem with a little aluminum in your diet? The issue has raged for decades, but recent research continues to confirm aluminum can cause neurologic harm.
In a recent study reported in the American Journal of Epidemiology, daily aluminum intake of as little as 0.1 milligrams was associated with a greater cognitive decline over the course of the study. In fact, subjects with a high daily aluminum intake more than doubled their risk of dementia.
Safety tip: Keep aluminum cookware in good condition. The more pitted and worn out the pot, the greater the amount of aluminum will be absorbed into your food. Minimize food storage time in aluminum and avoid cooking highly acidic foods in aluminum. Also consider using a good water filter. Some areas have dangerously high levels of aluminum in everyday tap water.
Safer Cookware
Great, we’ve just emptied our cabinets of pretty much all our everyday cookware. What are we expected to cook on now? Here’s a few popular alternatives that carry less risk to your health:
Cast Iron
The original “non-stick” cookware is a well-seasoned cast iron pan. Cast iron can be used to cook at even very high temperatures, with the ability to diffuse and retain heat very well. It even has a health benefit by leaching a small amount of dietary iron into the food.
Enameled cast iron pans are also available. While they can be a little pricey, the enamel coating prevents rusting and eliminates the need for seasoning the pan.
Glass
Glass is the most inert of all cookware. In other words, it doesn’t absorb odors and flavors from foods you cook in it, and therefore doesn’t leach them back into a later dish. For that matter, it doesn’t leach anything else into your food either, good or bad. It’s a great choice, safe for all ingredients, since acidic foods won’t react in glass cookware the way they will in some metal-based pans.
Apelberg BJ, et al. Determinants of fetal exposure to polyfluoroalkyl compounds in Baltimore, Maryland. Environmental Science & Technology. 2007 Jun 1;41(11):3891-7.
Cannata JB, et al. Aluminium hydroxide intake: real risk of aluminium toxicity. British Medical Journal (Clinical research ed.). 1983 Jun 18;286(6382):1937-8.
Rondeau V, et al. Aluminum and silica in drinking water and the risk of Alzheimer’s disease or cognitive decline: findings from 15-year follow-up of the PAQUID cohort. American journal of epidemiology. 2009 Feb 15;169(4):489-96.
A unique ab workout that doesn’t contain your typical boring stomach exercises – no crunches or situps here..
Article by Mike Geary – Certified Personal Trainer, Certified Nutrition Specialist
Author of best seller: The Truth about Six Pack Abs
Instead of the typical ab routines that we see so often with crunches, situps, leg lifts, etc… I like to give my readers better options for metabolism-boosting high intensity workouts that work their entire body while also working their abs… thus building rock hard abs & core, but also creating a much better fat-burning workout than a typical ab workout.
I’m going to show you an example today of one of my favorite “ab workouts” that doesn’t include any direct “ab exercises” at all. It’s in a tri-set format
(similar to a super-set but alternating between 3 exercises).
Here goes:
1a. Renegade Dumbbell Rows
1b. Front Squats with Barbell
1c. Mountain Climbers on Floor
A good rep scheme to use with this could be 3-4 sets of 8 reps for each exercise, or more sets for less reps, such as 5 sets of 5 reps of each exercise.
Mountain climbers can be done for a time interval (such as 30 seconds) instead of “reps”.
Exercise Pics & Descriptions:
Renegade dumbbell rows are done starting in a pushup position with the hands on 2 dumbbells. You then row one dumbbell up while stabilizing your body with the other arm. Bring the dumbbell back to the ground and alternate the rowing arm while stabilizing with the opposite arm. This stabilizing effect during the rows creates incredible work for your entire midsection core area. Trust me… you’ll feel it in the abs!
Front squats are done similar to back squats, however with the barbell in front of your body on the front of your shoulders instead of resting on the upper back as in back squats. You stabilize the barbell on your shoulders by crossing your arms and pushing your fists into the bar against your shoulders while keeping your elbows out in front of the body.
This takes a little practice at first, so you will want to seek a professional trainer at your gym to help you with the form. Front squats require extreme stabilization strength from the abs due to the barbell weight being shifted to the front of the body instead of the back. Even though this is mostly a leg exercise, you’ll feel this one in the abs big time!
Mountain climbers are done by starting in a pushup position and then shuffling your feet in and out so that your knees are moving in under your chest and then back out to starting position. It sort of resembles climbing a mountain but flat on the floor. If you want an advanced version, you can also shuffle your hands 8-10 inches forward and backward in addition to the leg movements. This really makes it a full body exercise and MUCH more difficult than standard mountain climbers.
After finishing each exercise, rest about 30 seconds before starting the next exercise. Rest about 1-2 minutes after completing each “tri-set” before repeating.
This will give you one of the best ab workouts you’ve ever had without even doing any direct ab exercises. You’ll see what I mean after you try it!
This is just a sampling of some of the killer ideas you’ll discover in my internationally best-selling ebook program, The Truth about Six Pack Abs, currently the #1 most popular abs program on the internet (as ranked by clickbank.com) with over 200,000 users in over 150 countries.
If you don’t already have a copy be sure to pick one up today…
Not only will you receive a complete blue-print for challenging full-body workouts that will thoroughly define your entire body in addition to your abs (can be adjusted to beginners or advanced levels), but you’ll also gain a thorough understanding of what types of nutritional strategies and other lifestyle aspects that it takes to reduce your belly fat to the level where your abs are visible. Remember, nutrition and mindset are MORE important than just the workouts!
Check out what other users are saying about their results with the Truth about Six Pack Abs program
Don’t be lazy… Be lean.
Mike Geary
Certified Nutrition Specialist
Certified Personal Trainer
Founder – TruthAboutAbs.com & Busy Man Fitness.com
The Healthy Back Institute - 333 Main St. Suite #201 Gaithersburg, MD 20878
Phone: 800-216-4908 Fax: 866-843-4319
The Healthy Back Institute is a Get Healthy and Fit Company
Hi Jesse,
You’ve done it. You’ve finally made the switch to a more healthful diet. You’re eating better, choosing more organic fruits and vegetables, but what you haven’t considered, may put you at even greater risk. How are you cooking your food?
