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Eggs, Eggs, Eggs.
Although eggs are exceptional for your health they are one of those foods that are, “Hot then you’re cold You’re yes then you’re no…” (Katie Perry 2008). Doctors have warned people against eating eggs and then they tell them their great. So which is it?
Eggs are one of the most nutritious foods out there. They’re low in the calories and high in the protein. They also contain vitamins and trace minerals.
People into bodybuilding and elderly people should have at least one egg per day. In fact, we all should. With 6 g of protein per egg and 77 calories, they are a powerhouse when it comes to food.
Nutrients In Eggs
While the egg whites (albumin) contain a small portion of the nutrients, the majority comes from the yolk. With vitamins and minerals such as A, D, B6, B12, Selenium, and only 5 g. of fat, it doesn’t take a genius to see eggs are a must in your daily diet.
On average one large egg contains:
- Vitamin B12 (cobalamin): .4 micrograms or 9% of the RDA
“Vitamin B-12 affects every cell in your body because of its role in your circulatory system. Cobalamin helps you to make heme, the component of your red blood cells that allows them to supply every tissue in your body with oxygen. A lack of vitamin B-12 causes anemia, a condition that develops when your blood can no longer properly oxygenate your body.
Cobalamin also supports cardiovascular health by controlling the levels of homocysteine — an amino acid — in your bloodstream. By helping your body metabolize homocysteine into less harmful compounds, vitamin B-12 prevents the high homocysteine levels that can contribute to heart disease. Getting enough vitamin B-12 also protects you from nerve damage by maintaining your myelin sheath, a fatty coating that surrounds your nerve cells and facilitates nerve function” (Written by Sylvie Tremblay, MSc 2018).
- Vitamin B2 (riboflavin): 15% of the RDA
“Vitamin B2 is a water-soluble vitamin, so it dissolves in water. All vitamins are either water soluble or fat soluble. Water-soluble vitamins are carried through the bloodstream, and whatever is not needed passes out of the body in urine.
People need to consume vitamin B2 every day because the body can only store small amounts, and supplies go down rapidly.
Riboflavin occurs naturally in some foods, added to others, and it can be taken as supplements. Most of it is absorbed in the small intestine” (By Christian Nordqvist 2017).
- Vitamin A: 6% of the RDA
“Vitamin A is found in different forms.
- Preformed vitamin A occurs in meat, fish, and dairy produce.
- Provitamin A is stored in fruits, vegetables, and other plant-based products.
- Retinol is the predominant, active form of vitamin A found in the blood. Retinyl palmitate is the storage form of the vitamin.
Beta-carotene is a precursor of vitamin A and is found in plants … meat, eggs, and milk” (Medical News Today).
- Vitamin B5 (pantothenic acid): 7% of the RDA
“Vitamin B5, also called pantothenic acid and pantothenate, is vital to living a healthy life. Like all B complex vitamins, B5 helps the body convert food into energy. B5 is naturally found in many food sources. “Pantothenic,” in fact, means “from everywhere,” because the vitamin is available in so many food sources” (
- Selenium: 22% of the RDA
It contributes to thyroid hormone metabolism and DNA synthesis, and it helps protect against oxidative damage and infection, according to the United States Office of Dietary Supplements.
It is present in human tissue, mostly in skeletal muscle.
Dietary sources are varied. They include Brazil nuts, seafood, eggs, and meats.
The amount of selenium in food often depends on the selenium concentration of the soil and water where farmers grew or raised the food” (Megan Ware RDN LD 2018).
- Vitamin D: 11% of the RDA
“Vitamin D is a fat-soluble vitamin that is naturally present in very few foods, added to others, and available as a dietary supplement. It is also produced endogenously when ultraviolet rays from sunlight strike the skin and trigger vitamin D synthesis” (National Institutes of Health).
Eggs are one of the only natural sources for vitamin D.
Here is what the Egg Nutrition Center had to say about eggs. “Lutein and zeaxanthin, antioxidants that are believed to reduce the risk of developing cataracts and slow the progression of age-related macular degeneration, a disease that develops with age” can also be found in eggs.
Given all of this information about eggs, you can see why they are, and should always remain, a great source of nutrients you obtain in your diet.
Farm Fresh is the best. If you have an opportunity to buy from someone raising their own free-range chickens then that’s what I would recommend. The yolk is a dark golden yellow when you get them from a farm because the chickens are allowed to eat what’s natural for them and they get exercise.
If you don’t have that opportunity then head to your local store a pick up a dozen today. Either way, eat an egg a day!
– Heather Earles
Notes: Definition of albumin from Merriam Webster’s Dictionary: “any of numerous simple heat-coagulable water-soluble proteins that occur in blood plasma or serum, muscle, the whites of eggs, milk, and other animal substances and in many plant tissues and fluids.”
In other countries, people do not refrigerate their eggs where in America we do. Why is that?
“The U.S. is one of only a few countries that mandates that all eggs be thoroughly washed and sterilized before distribution. This may not seem like a big difference, but America’s obsession with keeping food squeaky-clean strips away one of the egg’s chief defenses against bacteria: the slick coating of cuticle or bloom that envelops a freshly laid egg. Without this cuticle, an egg is more prone to harbor microorganisms like salmonella, and the FDA, therefore, requires eggs be kept at or below 45 degrees Fahrenheit to inhibit bacterial growth. While a few other countries like Australia and Japan also perform this same sterilization process (and therefore also require refrigerating eggs) most of the world gives them only a light scrub, removing dirt without destroying the bloom” (David McCowan 2017).
These are just two differant forms. Either way works.
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