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Does eating eggs increase risk of cardiovascular disease?
Those who ate eggs every day had an 18% lower risk of death from heart disease and 28% lower risk of stroke death compared to those who didn't eat eggs.
Aug 14, 2016 · Eggs are very good for you, but how you prepare them can make all the difference. That’s not to say that cooking them changes the health value of the egg itself, but of the meal. After all, to fry you need some type of fat and using a good fat or a bad fat is your choice.
- Overview
- A review of the different cooking methods
- Cooking makes some nutrients more digestible
- High-heat cooking may damage other nutrients
- High-heat cooking oxidizes the cholesterol in eggs
- 5 tips to cook super healthy eggs
- The bottom line
Choosing pasture-raised or organic eggs or a quicker cooking method may result in more nutritious eggs. When frying eggs, opting for high-heat cooking oil can help reduce harmful free radicals.
Eggs are an incredibly nutritious food.
They contain relatively few calories, but they’re packed with:
•proteins
•vitamins
•minerals
Boiled
Hard-boiled eggs are cooked in their shells in a pot of boiling water for 6–10 minutes, depending on how well cooked you want the yolk to be. The longer you cook them, the firmer the yolk will become.
Poached
Poached eggs are cooked in slightly cooler water. They’re cracked into a pot of simmering water between 160–180°F (71–82°C) and cooked for 2.5–3 minutes.
Fried
Fried eggs are cracked into a hot pan that contains a thin layer of cooking fat. You can then cook them “sunny side up,” which means the egg is fried on one side, or “over easy,” which means the egg is fried on both sides.
Cooking eggs makes them safer to eat, and it also makes some of their nutrients easier to digest.
One example of this is the protein in eggs.
Studies have shown it becomes more digestible when it’s heated (3).
In fact, one study found that the human body could use 91% of the protein in cooked eggs, compared to only 51% in raw eggs (4).
This change in digestibility is thought to occur because heat causes structural changes in the egg proteins.
In raw eggs, the large protein compounds are separate from each other and curled up in complex, twisted structures.
Although cooking eggs makes some nutrients more digestible, it can damage others.
This isn’t unusual. Cooking most foods will result in a reduction of some nutrients, particularly if they’re cooked at high temperatures for a long period of time.
Studies have examined this phenomenon in eggs.
One study found that cooking eggs reduced their vitamin A content by around 17-20% (6).
Cooking may also significantly reduce the number of antioxidants in eggs (7, 8, 9).
One study found that common cooking methods, including microwaving, boiling, and frying eggs, reduced the number of certain antioxidants by 6–18% (10).
Egg yolks are high in cholesterol.
In fact, one large egg contains about 212 mg of cholesterol, which is 71% of the previously recommended intake of 300 mg per day (12).
There’s now no recommended upper limit on daily cholesterol intake in the United States.
However, when eggs are cooked at high temperatures, the cholesterol in them may become oxidized and produce compounds known as oxysterols (13, 14).
This is a concern for some people, as oxidized cholesterol and oxysterols in the blood have been linked to an increased risk of heart disease (15, 16).
Foods containing oxidized cholesterol and oxysterols are thought to contribute to the blood levels of these compounds (17).
1. Choose a low-calorie cooking method
If you’re trying to cut back on calories, choose poached or boiled eggs. These cooking methods don’t add any extra fat calories, so the meal will be lower in calories than fried or scrambled eggs or an omelet.
2. Combine them with vegetables
Eggs go really well with vegetables. This means that eating eggs is a great opportunity to boost your vegetable intake and add extra fiber and vitamins to your meal. Some simple ideas include adding the vegetables of your choice into an omelet or scrambled eggs, like in this recipe. Or simply cook the eggs whichever way you want and have vegetables on the side.
3. Fry them in an oil that’s stable at high temperatures
The best oils for cooking at high heat, like when pan-frying, are those that remain stable at high temperatures and don’t oxidize easily to form harmful free radicals. Examples of good choices include avocado oil and sunflower oil. If using extra-virgin olive oil or coconut oil, it’s best to cook at temperatures lower than 410°F (210°C) and 350°F (177°C), respectively.
Overall, shorter and lower-heat cooking methods cause less cholesterol oxidation and help retain most of the egg’s nutrients.
For this reason, poached and boiled (either hard or soft) eggs may be the healthiest to eat. These cooking methods also don’t add any unnecessary calories.
All that being said, eating eggs is generally super healthy, no matter which way you cook them.
So you may just want to cook and eat them in the way you enjoy the most and not obsess over the small details.
More about eggs:
•Top 10 Health Benefits of Eating Eggs
- Helen West, RD
1. Egg choice. Use the freshest eggs possible to avoid the white turning into a mass of froth in the pan. Start by breaking the eggs into separate cups or bowls. 2. Water temperature. The water needs to be hot enough to cook the egg, but not too hot.
Eggs are, in fact, low in saturated fat. Recent research has also shown that moderate egg consumption - up to one a day - does not increase heart disease risk in healthy individuals and can be part of a healthy diet.
Jul 22, 2021 · Are they good or bad for you? What about their protein and cholesterol? Looking at the nutritional breakdown, one egg contains roughly 75 calories, 5 grams of fat, 6 grams of protein, 0 carbohydrates, 67 milligrams of potassium, 70 milligrams of sodium and 210 milligrams of cholesterol.
Fried eggs are traditionally cooked in some sort of fat, whereas boiled eggs are cooked in water. The nutritional value of eggs can be greatly influenced by what you cook your eggs in. While fried eggs may traditionally be cooked in butter, you may want to opt for healthier fats like olive oil if you choose to consume fried eggs regularly.
