The less of total cholesterol you consume, the more your body produces it.
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Cholesterol is so vital to our health that the body cannot rely on food sources alone for it. Becasue only less than 20 percent of total cholesterol comes from diet, the balance is being constantly manufactured by the body.
Thus, trying to reduce our consumption of traditional cholesterol-laden foods, such as eggs, butter, or meat, may be an exercise in futility.
It has been known for many years that very large doses of cholesterol lead to... a decreased percentage of its absorption. However, considerable variation is seen in absorption from person to person, and the ranges vary five-fold.
Unfortunately, there are no lab tests to predict if you absorb a lot or very little cholesterol. The fact is that the average absorption is clearly decreased at usual cholesterol intake. This could explain why studies with feeding eggs every day to volunteers have shown almost no effect on serum (blood) cholesterol levels (Journal of Lipid Research, August 1999).
For full health benefits, it is best not to cook the eggs.
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With respect to preparing the eggs, raw eggs may not be the problem you think they are.
This helps preserve many of the highly perishable nutrients such as lutein and zeaxanthin, which are powerful prevention elements of the most common cause of blindness, age related macular degeneration.
But whatever method you use, the less exposure to oxygen and heat, the better the egg will serve as source of good nutrition for you.
When you heat the egg yolk, changes occur in the fragile elements that serve to support the vital life force within the egg.
The yolk, in many ways, is not very different from your own cells. As put by Dr. Joseph Mercola, once your temperature goes above 105 degrees Celcius 68 (221 degrees Fahrenheit) you will start to suffer serious health problems.
Similarly, heating the yolk above 105°C, or 221°F will also start to cause structural changes in many of the highly perishable components present in the yolk. The most obvious one is cholesterol.
The higher the egg yolk is heated, the more likely oxidation of cholesterol will occur.
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This is especially true when it is combined with egg white as in scrambled eggs.
As a matter of fact, eating scrambled eggs is one of the worst ways to eat eggs. High temperature, increased air (oxygen) and light exposure, along with the typical use of chemically unstable vegetable oils and the presence of iron in the egg white, actually oxidize the cholesterol in the egg yolk.
In other words, scrambling eggs may lead to high levels of LDL-“bad” cholesterol known for its markedly damaging effects on the cardiovascular system. (Our blood vessels do not have receptors for cholesterol, only for oxidized LDL cholesterol).
So, you can eat as many eggs as you like, without worrying about cholesterol, as long as you don't cook the yolks.
A healthy person can have 3 - 6 eggs per week, preferably raw or soft-boiled, or sunny-side-up (never scrambled!).
If you are concerned about the risk of salmonella from raw eggs, you may rest assured that most people have a better chance of winning the lottery than contracting salmonella from eggs from healthy chickens.
Regular consumption of raw eggs -- for a healthy person, 6 to 12 eggs per week, Rocky-style, every other day -- can dramatically improve your health.
PLEASE NOTE: The key to healthy eating of raw eggs is to make sure you cook the whites. If you fail to do so you will eventually develop a biotin deficiency that can result in neurologic consequences.
