How healthy are eggs?
Eggs, whether raw, boiled, coloured or chocolate, are a firm feature of Easter. But what do hens’ eggs contain, and how healthy are they really?
At the moment the supermarkets are full of delicious looking, brightly coloured eggs. But eggs aren’t just popular at Easter. More than a billion are consumed in Switzerland every year, including the eggs used to make foods such as pasta.
High in cholesterol
For a long time eggs had a bad reputation, and were seen as a seriously dangerous source of cholesterol. It’s true that a medium-sized egg contains around 220 milligrams of cholesterol, enough to cover two thirds of an adult’s daily requirements (300 milligrams). For this reason it was long said that you shouldn’t eat more than three eggs a week. But now there are various studies suggesting that healthy people shouldn’t have any worries about eating eggs, and that at least one a day is okay. The reason is that if you’re healthy, your blood cholesterol level regulates itself by making sure that if you consume more cholesterol in your food, your body compensates by producing less. Healthy people can even eat more cholesterol than their body needs, because if this happens there’s a mechanism to temporarily stop it being absorbed by the intestine, so cholesterol levels are hardly affected.It’s important to note, though, that those with an elevated risk of cardiovascular disease, elevated cholesterol levels, problems with their lipid (fat) metabolism or conditions such as diabetes should go easy on the eggs.
Eggs are healthy!
Eggs are a rich and varied source of important nutrients the body needs to grow and develop. In fact they’re one of the most nutritious foods of all. The average egg contains protein, healthy fats and a whole variety of minerals. Eggs also contain the entire range of vitamins (with the exception of vitamin C).Our tip for Easter
If you want to use healthy, natural dyes to decorate your Easter eggs, you may already have some of the right ingredients in your kitchen. To get different colours, simply add the following to boiling water, adjusting the amount to vary the intensity of the colours:
Yellow: onions, saffron, camomile blossom
Red: beetroot, red hibiscus tea
Blue: elderberries, blueberries
Green: spinach, parsley, stinging nettles
Brown: coffee, black tea
23.03.2016
In the event of further health-related questions, SWICA customers can contact the santé24 telemedicine service free of charge on +41 44 404 86 86. A telemedicine practice licence allows santé24 physicians to provide additional medical services in cases that are suited to a telemedicine approach. SWICA customers can also use the BENECURA medical app to carry out a digital SymptomCheck and receive recommendations about what to do next. During a subsequent phone call with santé24, customers can decide for themselves whether to release their information from SymptomCheck to santé24.
