The recent egg recall due to salmonella has pushed the incredible, edible egg to the forefront of my food thoughts this week, and in spite of the recall I want to discuss why I think everyone should eat more eggs. I’d also like to point out that salmonella and food poisoning on eggs tends to come more from the huge factory farms due to the horrible living conditions of the chickens, so I encourage everyone to buy local, free-range, and preferably organic eggs whenever possible.
Why Eat Eggs?
For starters, eggs are an excellent source of protein. If you’re a vegetarian (not a vegan) then eggs should be a big part of your diet as eggs supply all 21 of the essential amino acids for humans. These can be difficult to get from just plant-based protein. Eggs also provide vitamin A, vitamin D, a bunch of B vitamins including B2, B6, B9, B12 (also tough to get as a veggie), choline, iron, calcium, phosphorus, and potassium (list copied from wikipedia found here).
Note that eggs are one of the few foods that contain naturally occurring vitamin D.
This brings me to my next point. It’s very important that you eat the egg yolks – not just the whites. Most of an egg’s vitamins and nutrition are in the yolk – including A, D, and E. Not only that but the yolk contains close to half the protein, and all of the choline which is an important nutrient that helps regulate the brain and nervous system.
Of course, the yolk also contains practically all of an egg’s fat and cholesterol, which is why many people eat the egg whites only. How big a problem is the fat and cholesterol really? One egg contains approximately 5 grams of fat, and 27% of the fat is saturated – or just over 1 gram. It’s important that you eat fat as your body and brain need it – even when you’re trying to lose weight – so the few grams of fat in an egg are really not a big deal.
Eggs are high in cholesterol, however studies suggest that eating saturated fat is what increases our bodies cholesterol, not eating cholesterol itself. A study was done in 2007 with nearly 10,000 adults (see wikipedia) that found no correlation between eating 6 eggs a week and heart disease except in the case of diabetics. If you are diabetic you probably already know the correlation between diabetes, eggs, and heart disease and you should disregard this article.
Why Do Eggs Get a Bad Rap?
The biggest problem with eggs is the way that we prepare them. An egg by itself is fine, but when you fry it in butter, cover it with cheese and salt, or fill an egg omelet with sausage and fried peppers and onions you’ve taken something that’s pretty healthy by itself and made it very unhealthy.
The best and healthiest way to get the benefits of eggs without the risks is to eat them hard boiled with a dash of pepper. Hard boiled eggs are a great addition to a salad, are handy as a snack, and can be stored for days without worry.
A tip to prevent the yolks from going green is don’t hard boil the eggs any longer than necessary, and immediately after you take your eggs out of the boiling water put them in cold water and let them sit (shell still on). The green comes from a sulfer reaction between the iron in the egg yolk and sulfer in the egg whites. If you don’t cool the eggs right away, they go on cooking and reacting and you’ll get a green layer on the yolk.
As an added benefit, many farmers are starting to feed their chickens special feed that increases the healthy Omega3 fat content. Omega3 eggs cost a bit more, but considering how inexpensive eggs are to begin with we think they’re well worth it.
Other Benefits of Eggs
- Eggs promote healthy hair and nails because of their high sulphur content
- Eating eggs may lower the risk of Breast Cancer by up to 44%
- Moderate egg consumption may actually prevent blood clots, strokes and heart attacks
- Eggs are great for your eyes due to the carotenoid content
- As stated before, Eggs are one of the only foods to contain Vitamin D – a vitamin that most of us are lacking
Some of these are hearsay, and others are things I’ve read on the web, and you definitely can’t believe everything you read on the web or hear from others. Feel free to research this and let us know if you’ve found sources in the comments.
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Thanks for reading and enjoy those eggs!
Great article. Thank you