Best way to eat eggs debunked!

Eggs are ubiquitous in Southeast Asian diets, and methods to prepare them are aplenty. The age-old question of how eggs should be eaten remains: eat just the white, just the yolk or have both? Research has unraveled the answer. According to the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, a study led by University of Illinois revealed that egg yolks enhance the body’s ability to utilize protein in muscles. It seems that plenty of precious yolks have been wasted by bodybuilders. Individuals who ate 18g of protein from eggs after a resistance workout had 40% greater muscle protein synthesis compared to those who ate only egg whites.

Eggs are heavily condensed with nutrients such as vitamin D, vitamin A, vitamin B12, riboflavin, omega-3 fatty acids, and all nine essential amino acids, helping to preserve and build muscles and promote satiety. While the yolk contains the most calories, it is also where most vitamins and minerals are located. Despite being high in dietary cholesterol, consumers need not worry as dietary cholesterol does not contribute to blood cholesterol that deposits on arteries. A Finnish study involving more than 1,000 men concluded that consumption of eggs does not predispose one to coronary artery disease, even among those with a genetic predisposition to experience stronger effect of dietary cholesterol on blood cholesterol. Furthermore, eggs are low in saturated fat and high in unsaturated fats, which enhance your cardiovascular health.

Instead of questioning how eggs should be eaten, we should concern ourselves more with how eggs are prepared. The core of it is the heating process. Heating egg whites is beneficial as denatured proteins will become more bioavailable. However, yolks are best left with minimal heating as beneficial fats and nutrients will be oxidized. To retain the maximum amount of nutrients on eggs, the recommended order of preparing eggs will descend from soft boiled, poached, raw, hard boiled, sunny side up, over easy to scrambled.

Now, you know how to have your eggs with a peace of mind.

Authored by: MHC