Egg on your ACE

Dear Reader, I've made it part of my job to act as an unofficial PR rep for eggs. Because they really are a practically perfect food. Yet for some reason, mainstream medicine just won't admit that they've had it wrong all these years. And the smear campaign against eggs continues. Maybe this latest discovery will finally shut up all the noise that keeps coming from the anti-egg camp. If nothing else, it's another small victory for long-time egg lovers like me. A team of researchers recently discovered that a peptide in egg whites might be able to lower blood pressure. This substance, simply called RVPSL, appears to be able to block angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE). And as you may have guessed, that's the same mechanism behind a popular class of blood pressure drugs called ACE inhibitors. In fact, these scientists found that RVPSL was able to reduce high blood pressure as effectively as a low dose of an ACE inhibitor called Captopril in hypertensive rats. And without any toxic effects, either. Considering the array of side effects that can come with ACE inhibitors--anything from itching and headaches to chest pain and kidney failure--I think it's safe to say that this is a pretty major finding. But it's not the first study to show that eggs are good for your heart. You might remember me mentioning just last month that simply eating one egg per day may actually cut a diabetic's risk of cardiovascular disease in half. There's just one thing to keep in mind. As I'm always telling you, an egg's real nutrition--like fatty acids, lutein, calcium, and iron--is in its yolk. So pass on that anemic egg white omelet and go for the full color version instead.