Cook Those Eggs!

I for one am a HUGE fan of eggs, and all the amazing health benefits associated with them.  They're loaded with vitamins, healthy fats, and most importantly, PROTEIN!  Yes, being a weightlifter I need all the protein I can get for the fewest calories I can find.  My two favorite foods that fit this bill perfectly are fish, and EGGS.  You can get 8 grams of readily absorbed protein from each egg, and the egg itself is only around 74 calories.  The egg white contains a lot of protein by itself, around 6 grams, and there are only about 20 calories worth in every egg.  But hey, if you're only going to eat one to three eggs a day, keep the yoke in.  I won't delve into much detail, but the cholesterol issues so commonly referred to in the same sentence as eggs are drastically overstated.  The yoke has a plethora of health benefits, and the dietary cholesterol it contains should NOT be a deterrent for this tasty yellow center.

But I'm not here just to go off on how eggs are so amazing (which they are), I'm writing this article to drop an interesting little knowledge bomb on all of you.  Eggs have the potential to be one of the most biologically available protein sources in the entire food universe.  What do I mean by this?  Well you see, though you can easily find out how much protein there is in any quantity of any type of food, the body can only absorb a certain percentage of that protein because of the chemical composition of the food itself.  The absorbed percentage is known as the "bioavailibilty" of the protein.  Beef protein is about 80% bioavailable to the body.  Fish protein?  ~83%.  The protein in eggs, remarkably, is upward of 95% bioavailable to the body!  That's impressive!

But wait, hold the phone.  

Egg protein is only 95% bioavailable to the body when the egg is COOKED.  That's right, fried, poached, boiled, you name it, that's what gets all that good protein to the forefront of your nutrient absorption.

What's the bioavailibility of raw egg protein?  about 50%.

That, my friends, is a HUGE difference!

Why is this the case?  Well, it's a funny chemical process that occurs when the egg is cooked which allows the protein to become more readily absorbed by your body.  And while I could delve into a complicated description of exactly how this chemical process works, I happened across a marvelous little webpage that explains the whole situation much better than I could.  Here's what it says:

"Heat ’em

When you apply heat, you agitate those placidly drifting egg-white proteins, bouncing them around. They slam into the surrounding water molecules; they bash into each other. All this bashing about breaks the weak bonds that kept the protein curled up. The egg proteins uncurl and bump into other proteins that have also uncurled. New chemical bonds form—but rather than binding the protein to itself, these bonds connect one protein to another. 

After enough of this bashing and bonding, the solitary egg proteins are solitary no longer. They’ve formed a network of interconnected proteins. The water in which the proteins once floated is captured and held in the protein web. If you leave the eggs at a high temperature too long, too many bonds form and the egg white becomes rubbery."

Check my references to see the rest of this page.  It's a great read.

Want another reason to cook your eggs?  One word:  Salmonella.  It's not something you want, believe me. Without going into too much detail, it's a bacteria that will make you VERY sick VERY quickly, and causes about 140 US deaths per year.  Sure, the risk of death sounds relatively low, but it also infects over a million people every year, and you do NOT want to be infected.  What's one of the biggest causes of salmonella infection?

Chicken eggs.  Yeah, bummer, I know.

Salmonella usually rests on the shell of the egg, but can also penetrate to the yoke.  It's said that 1 in every 20,000 eggs is infected with salmonella.  Sure, the risk is low, but I eat between 1-3 eggs a day, and I know people who eat upward of nine eggs daily.  If someone eats between 3 and 9 eggs daily, they'll eat between 1095 and 3285 eggs per year.  So at the bare minimum, in twenty years it's VERY likely you'll run across an egg that's salmonella infected.  Something to think about.

So what's the good news?  Cooking eggs thoroughly can eliminate salmonella bacteria within the yoke.  Wash your hands thoroughly after handling eggs though, as it can still reside on the shell.  Easy enough, right?

So what's the bottom line?  Sorry you wanna-be Rocky Balboas, downing your eggs raw is not only exposing you to an unnecessary salmonella risk, but you're wasting a heaping ton of some otherwise EXTREMELY BIOAVAILABLE protein.  Why deprive yourself of what your body needs?

Build some muscle, lose some fat, cook those eggs.  Good Luck!


References:


http://www.exploratorium.edu/cooking/eggs/eggscience.html
http://www.incredibleegg.org/egg-facts/egg-safety/eggs-and-food-safety
http://www.about-salmonella.com/

Egg Whites, Better than the Rest?

Eggs are a staple in the vast majority of modern diets.  They hold our bread together, they form our breakfast omelettes, they can be a nice hard boiled snack, and for my fellow gym-goers they represent a fantastic source of protein.  You eat more eggs than you probably realize, and that's not a bad thing.  Eggs are a natural food loaded with great substance that your body can make use of.  In fact I suggest getting a few more eggs into your diet, especially around breakfast and lunch time.  They're low calorie, high protein, and absolutely delicious.  But is there a way that you can make this natural super-food even better for you?  I'll let you in on a simple little diet change regarding eggs that might make them that much more enjoyable to have in your diet.

Now maybe you've heard, but the only really iffy part of an egg happens to be that nice creamy yellow yolk.  Egg yolks do contain "bad" cholesterol, which you definitely don't want to be getting too much of in your diet.  One egg yolk contains about 213mg of LDL cholesterol, and if you're consuming multiple eggs a day I'd suggest limiting your cholesterol from other sources.  Will this cholesterol kill your healthy diet?  No, not at all, in fact the average person doesn't eat enough eggs to even feel the effects of that added cholesterol.  Still though, it'd be nice to get more of the benefits from eggs (of which there are numerous) without worrying about heart health.  Also, egg yolks contain the majority of the calories in eggs.  One egg has about 78 calories, and the yolk contains between 55-60 of them.  Wouldn't it be nice to have an extremely low calorie egg white source, free from cholesterol and saturated fat?

Well that's a pretty easy thing to do, actually.  BUY EGG WHITES.  Liquid egg whites come in small cartons, and are extremely useful for everything from omelettes to cakes to breads or anything else you want to bake.  They contain all the benefits from eggs such as:

High Vitamin D Content

Dense, usable protein

Healthy, unsaturated fat

High Sulfur content

But how do you use egg whites?  Well in omelettes, it's pretty easy.  Measure out your desired amount (I'd suggest either 1/2 cup or 1 cup, which contain 60 and 120 calories respectively), and throw it on a greased up griddle.  Add some peppers, onions, mushrooms, cheese, and a lean protein source to have quite the healthy, satisfying breakfast.  It's pretty easy to do scrambled eggs as well, just follow the same process, but run the spatula through the egg white liquid as it's grilling to "scramble" it into a soft, lumpy egg pile of goodness. I'd suggest seasoning with some cayenne pepper, I really like it spicy.  But stay away from the salt!

How about baking?  Obviously this gets a little more iffy if you're trying to substitute egg whites for whole eggs, but it can work.  There's a general formula which says if you want to replace whole eggs, use two egg whites (1 egg white would be the amount of white contained in one egg.)  If you're using carton egg whites (such as egg beaters, which I would STRONGLY recommend considering they add a whole lot of yolk nutrients back into the substance without any of the cholesterol or fat), you need a conversion factor.  This conversion was pulled directly off their website www.eggbeaters.com:

In my recipes, how do I substitute Egg Beaters for whole eggs?

For recipes, simply use Egg Beaters as follows:
4 whole eggs = 1 cup Egg Beaters
1 whole egg = 1/4 cup Egg Beaters
1 egg white = 3 tbsp Egg Beaters

Try it in a few recipes!  You can really add a new health factor to many of your old favorites.

On a side note, if you're making an omelette with traditional carton egg whites, don't be afraid to add one whole egg in there too for both flavor and the nutrients that the yolk contains.  While the yolk does contain LDL cholesterol, it also has a lot of benefits as well, like all sorts of rich vitamins.  And believe me, one egg won't hurt you.  Better yet, use egg beaters.  Like I mentioned before, they separate the yolk out, but add all the lost nutrients back into the mixture.  That's a win win situation right there.  It's also a great source of beta carotene!

So there you have it.  Some of the benefits of egg whites, and why it'd be a great idea to try some in your diet.  The cartons are really easy to find, and even easier to use once you start giving them a chance and making the effort to change up those recipes.  Give it a shot!

Scramble with determination, fry with confidence, and as always, good luck!