Eggs are one of my favorite, nourishing foods! They were featured as a food the day in one of my Foundations of Nutrition chapters and it made me love them even more!
When selecting eggs, it’s very important to try to buy eggs from pasture raised hens. The nutrient profile of their eggs is so much better than those from factory raised hens. Pasture raised hens have access to their natural diet of grass, weeds, bugs and grubs along with access to sun, which increases the vitamin D content of the eggs. They also aren’t confined to a small pen their entire life.
Here’s more infomation about this “egg-cellent” food 🙂
Eggs are very nutrient-dense, the yolk has nearly every nutrient humans need! The egg white has very little in the way of nutrients and contains an “anti-nutrient” called avidin.
Avidin is a glycoprotein that binds to the B vitamin biotin, preventing its absorption. Biotin is necessary for fatty acid synthesis, blood sugar maintenance, and is very important during pregnancy when biotin status declines.
Bauman College, Weston A. Price Foundation and other real food researchers recommend against consuming raw egg whites because of avidin. The raw egg white also contains inhibitors of the digestive enzyme trypsin. Avidin and trypsin are both destroyed by heat.
Eggs contain a trace amount of carbs and no fiber. One medium egg has roughly 75 calories, 6.5 grams of protein, 212 milligrams of cholesterol, 5.8 grams of fat, 1.7 grams of saturated, 2.3 grams of mono-saturated and .9 gram of poly-saturated.
The vitamin and mineral profile of one egg is amazing, it contains:
- Vitamin A
- Vitamin K2
- Vitamin D
- All B vitamins including B1, B2, B3, B5, B6, B12, choline, biotin, and folic acid.
- The minerals include calcium, magneiusm, iron, zinc, copper, phosphorus, selenium, sulfur, and iodine.
Choline is the star of the B vitamins. The average U.S. diet provides about 300 milligrams of choline per day – less than the recommended amount for an adult woman (425 milligrams) or an adult man (550 milligrams). One egg provides over 100 milligrams of choline!
Dr. Ed Bauman and other researchers believe dietary and blood cholesterol are not directly associated. Instead, they believe blood cholesterol levels are controlled by genetics, insulin and stress. Dr. Bauman says we “shouldn’t be phobic of egg cholesterol.”
If you like to learn more about why cholesterol isn’t “evil” I highly recommend reading the research being done by Chris Masterjohn PhD.
Honeychick Homestead 