No, I'm not talking about the fable of The Goose That Laid The Golden Egg but the truth about one of the most nutritious foods on our planet - the egg. Not just the egg white but the whole egg, because the yolk is the 'golden' part of the egg.

What!! Aren't egg yolks 'bad'? Don't they cause high blood cholesterol levels?

Well, let's examine the research. Back in1991 - the same year the first website went online - researchers postulated that high blood cholesterol was associated with heart disease. Therefore, high cholesterol foods were considered to be a primary factor in unhealthy blood cholesterol.

Now, 25 years later, scientists have come to the conclusion that cholesterol in food is not the real problem but that saturated and trans fats have a much greater effect on blood cholesterol. The 2015 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee reviewed the body of scientific and medical evidence in nutrition and recommended that limits on dietary cholesterol be removed from the 2015 Dietary Guidelines. "It's the right decision," cardiologist Dr. Steven Nissan said. "The dietary guidelines (for cholesterol) have been wrong for decades."

But what about eggs in particular? Dr. Luc Djoussé, associate professor and heart disease researcher at Harvard Medical School says that current scientific data do not justify worries about egg consumption, including egg yolk, when it comes to heart health. In fact, one study at the University of Connecticut found that the fat in egg yolks actually helps to reduce LDL (“bad” cholesterol). And, according to a study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, even for people whose genes place them at greater risk for heart and cholesterol problems, eating an egg every day isn’t a problem.

So, science marches on. But what's this about whole eggs being among the most nutritious of foods? Well, whole eggs contain 7 grams of high quality protein along with almost every essential vitamin and mineral, they are high in omega-3 fatty acids and nutrients such as vitamins B6 and B12, riboflavin, folate, and choline that help prevent heart disease plus two nutrients—lutein and zeaxanthin—that support eye and brain health. The yolk itself contains most of these vitamins and minerals, plus half of its protein. When you eat only the egg whites, you’re missing out on all of these nutritional benefits and are getting only half of the protein. And that is why the whole egg is golden!