Should I include eggs in a healthy diet?

Eggs may be nature's perfect food; they contain healthy fats, protein, and cholesterol that are essential for good health. Neurologist David Perlmutter, MD, explain why eggs, yolks, and all are a great choice.

Transcript

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If you had three eggs a day, that's about 15 grams of protein. And you're off to a really good start. You're giving your body what it needs

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to create the proper neurochemicals, brain chemicals, and you're also powering your brain. [MUSIC PLAYING]

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Eggs are what I consider a nature's perfect food. Why? Because they contain wonderful healthful fats.

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They contain-- actually, this is kind of news-- a precursor chemical that your body uses to make estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, cortisol,

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and even vitamin D, and that is called cholesterol, a very important brain healthy chemical

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that your body is actually desperate for. And, you know, these days when you are at a restaurant

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and you look at the breakfast menu, you always see these egg white omelets and egg white this and that.

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That's exactly what you don't want to do. You want to eat the full egg. You want to eat the egg yolk. That's where so much of the good fat, the good cholesterol

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and protein is located. Now, you're going to get about 5 or 6 grams of protein in every egg. So if you had three eggs a day, that's

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about 15 grams of protein. And you're off to a really good start. You're giving your body what it needs to create the proper neurochemicals,

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brain chemicals, and you're also powering your brain by giving it healthy fat, which is basically

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what your brain needs. So eggs are a good choice. They need to be pasteurized. You don't want just standard eggs

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from factory-raised chickens because the levels of pro-inflammatory or inflammation-producing omega-6

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fats is about 14 times higher in your typical grocery store egg, as opposed to the free range pasture eggs which

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have much higher levels of the anti-inflammatory or inflammation-reducing omega-3s.