# Breakfast Nutrition **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 30, 2008, 5:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breakfast-nutrition/475025 "2008-11-30T05:48:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![The\_Man\_In\_Black](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bcef8e/32.png) [@The\_Man\_In\_Black](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Man_In_Black)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2008, 5:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breakfast-nutrition/475025/1 "2008-11-30T05:48:41Z")
Is it healthy to eat 2 or 3 eggs (over well) every morning? I read on the Men’s Health message board that eggs have good cholesterol and are good for you. Even if this is true, is eating 14-21 eggs a week bad for me? Second, is it unhealthy to eat 4 or 5 strips of bacon every morning? Would I be better off eating instant oatmeal (maple and brown sugar)? Thank you for help and info. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2008, 7:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breakfast-nutrition/475025/2 "2008-11-30T07:15:19Z")
1. The difference between “good” and “bad” cholesterol isn’t something fixed in stone. One becomes the other becomes the one, inside the human body. So even if you ingest 100% “good” cholesterol, ingesting enough of it will give you “bad” cholesterol. 2. There have been studies (I recall one about a Trapa monastery in Spain whose monks’ only sources of proteins are eggs and beans, but mostly eggs as they get those for free) showing that people whose sole source of cholesterol are eggs don’t have as many heart problems as could be expected, but the thing is… those monks haven’t seen meat since they joined the convent; they don’t even eat their hens. Their only source of cholesterol is egg, their only source of fat is olive oil, they eat more veggies in one day than some people eat in the whole week and fast one day a week. A detail from their diet can’t be applied to everybody else’s diets wholesale, not unless you do copy their whole diet. 3. What is this, a contest of “how much cholesterol can you eat before your arteries explode”? Whether your specific arteries can put up with that much or not depends on the rest of your diet, how much physical activity you do, and genetics. But in general terms, you would be better off having something like “one egg, two pieces of bacon, a bowl of oatmeal and some fruit (can be juice)” than “three eggs and five strips of bacon.” The bacon and eggs aren’t just laden with cholesterol, they’re also sorely lacking on the fiber and vitamins department. In general, you should aim to have a diet as varied as possible. Doesn’t mean you have to eat every single item that everybody thought up a way to cook, but if you’re going to have that much protein (and not the healthiest kind, specially the bacon) in your breakfast I do hope you eat a lot of veggies during the rest of the day. I eat a proteiny breakfast myself, but I vary it. Sometimes one egg, sometimes a couple slices of ham, chopped turkey or salami, sometimes I skip the proteins and have an orange. I definitely have lighter breakfasts than what you’re describing, but then, I barely move all day so my calorie intake should stay low if I want to be able to fit inside my clothes. ---
**Author:** ![Moglet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Moglet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moglet)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2008, 7:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breakfast-nutrition/475025/3 "2008-11-30T07:17:03Z")
IANA nutritionist, but you must realise that too much of anything will be bad for you. I suspect that it is not advisable to have bacon and eggs every day. Oatmeal sounds like a good alternative. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2008, 7:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breakfast-nutrition/475025/4 "2008-11-30T07:56:27Z")
It depends on the context of the rest of your diet. When I was on the Atkins diet I had eggs with sausages every single morning, and my cholesterol and triglycerides became normal, along with lower blood sugar and weight loss. The oatmeal would have been a disaster. ---
**Author:** ![Moirai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/96bed5/32.png) [@Moirai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moirai)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2008, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breakfast-nutrition/475025/5 "2008-11-30T17:31:24Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > It depends on the context of the rest of your diet. When I was on the Atkins diet I had eggs with sausages every single morning, and my cholesterol and triglycerides became normal, along with lower blood sugar and weight loss. The oatmeal would have been a disaster. I had a similar experience. When I scramble eggs, I leave out a yolk or two, though, as I understand that the yolks are the Bad Part. ---
**Author:** ![Mr\_Buttons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@Mr\_Buttons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Buttons)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2008, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breakfast-nutrition/475025/6 "2008-11-30T19:27:37Z")
A quick google search of “are eggs healthy” gave exactly 11,000,000 hits. Scrolling down the front page, [This link](http://health.msn.com/health-topics/cholesterol/articlepage.aspx?cp-documentid=100096376) seems to be from the most reliable source (if you consider msn a reliable source). > [@](#): > > Here are the facts: One large egg has about 213 milligrams (mg) of cholesterol—all of which is found in the yolk. If you are healthy, it’s recommended that you limit your dietary cholesterol intake to less than 300 mg a day. If you have cardiovascular disease, diabetes or high LDL (or “bad”) cholesterol, you should limit your dietary cholesterol intake to less than 200 mg a day. Therefore, if you eat an egg on a given day, it’s important to limit or avoid other sources of cholesterol for the rest of that day. > > If you like eggs but don’t want the extra cholesterol, use egg whites. Egg whites contain no cholesterol. I have no knowledge of my own to offer, as it seems every even number year the news will report that eggs are good for us again. Then every odd number year eggs become the bane of health experts everywhere again. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Man\_In\_Black](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bcef8e/32.png) [@The\_Man\_In\_Black](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Man_In_Black)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2008, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breakfast-nutrition/475025/7 "2008-11-30T20:02:02Z")
On the Men’s Health message board I was told to eat as many whole eggs as I want. There are people there who say they eat 6 or 7 whole eggs a day, every day. Also that bacon was an item on the safe list of food to pick and choose from. They say the fat is good for you and will make you feel fuller after you’ve eaten. I’m on my feet pretty much all day at work. And I lift weights 3 times a week and run 2-3 times a week. My goal is general health. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2008, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breakfast-nutrition/475025/8 "2008-11-30T21:52:09Z")
To illustrate how contextual this can be, this is what Michael Phelps eats for breakfast: Three fried egg sandwiches with cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, fried onions and mayonnaise. A five-egg omelet. A bowl of grits. Three slices of French toast with powdered sugar. Three chocolate pancakes. Two cups of coffee. So the answer is: “It depends.” ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2008, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breakfast-nutrition/475025/9 "2008-11-30T22:09:55Z")
He probably burns all that off before his midmorning snack. Do you? ---
**Author:** ![Critical1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3e96dc/32.png) [@Critical1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Critical1)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2008, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breakfast-nutrition/475025/10 "2008-11-30T22:27:34Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > To illustrate how contextual this can be, this is what Michael Phelps eats for breakfast: professional athletes are on diets that are often in the 6000 calories a day range. I realize it does depend but for an average human 3 eggs and 5 slices of bacon is a pretty high fat/cholesterol way to start the day. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2008, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breakfast-nutrition/475025/11 "2008-11-30T22:45:53Z")
> [@](#): > > He probably burns all that off before his midmorning snack. Do you? Probably not, but it does illustrate that different diets are reasonable for different activity levels, and we don’t know how much exercise the OP gets. If he’s, say, regularly climbing the rigging of a ship, getting in swordfights, wrestling with giants, and fighting off the effects of poisons, then three eggs and five slices of bacon might be a perfectly reasonable way to start the day.