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An Organic Egg Really Does Do Your Body Good

Updated on March 22, 2009

If you've been staying away from eggs because you're afraid of raising your blood cholesterol level, I encourage you to review my article on what most doctors won't tell you about cholesterol.

The truth is that organic eggs are abundant in the following health-promoting nutrients:

  • Healthy protein and fat

  • Vitamins A, D, B12, B2, niacin, and folate

  • Lutein and zeaxanthin, which are yellow and orange carotenoids that can reduce your risk of developing cataracts and age-related macular degeneration

  • Choline, a nutrient that is essential to normal cell structure and function and proper signaling between regular cells and nerve cells

What follows are some guidelines on including eggs in a healthy diet and lifestyle:

  1. Try to eat organic eggs from free range birds - such eggs tend to have a healthier nutritional profile than eggs that are produced in a factory farm setting.

  2. If you fry or scramble eggs, use virgin coconut oil, olive oil, or if you can tolerate dairy, use organic butter - all are relatively high in healthy saturated fatty acids and are therefore quite stable when exposed to low to medium cooking temperatures.

  3. Try not to eat cooked eggs every day, as it's possible to become allergic to any protein-dense food if you eat it in large quantities every day. Three to five servings per week is fine for most people.

  4. Try eating raw eggs. For many people, raw eggs are a better food choice than cooked eggs because all heat-sensitive elements are fully intact in raw eggs. Also, raw eggs are more easily assimilated into your bloodstream than cooked eggs, though for the average person whose digestive tract is relatively healthy, cooked eggs don't pose significant digestive burden.

    An enjoyable way to enjoy the health benefits of eating raw eggs is via our delicious power smoothie recipe

One note on eating raw eggs: Many people in North America have been conditioned to believe that eating raw eggs is dangerous because of the potential of being infected with salmonella.

According to a recent study by the United States Department of Agriculture, only one in every 30,000 eggs is contaminated with salmonella. Although I haven't come across any statistics that tell us what this percentage is for organic eggs, it's almost certainly far lower. The healthier the bird and its environment and feed, the less risk there is of salmonella contamination.

Personally, I don’t worry about this issue at all. People all over the world - particularly in Russia, China, and Korea - have included raw eggs in their diets for thousands of years.

If you are concerned about becoming deficient in biotin due to the presence of avidin in raw egg whites, have your egg yolks raw and cook your egg whites. While avidin can bind onto biotin and prevent its absorption into your bloodstream, you will still be getting biotin whenever you eat foods that contain it and don't eat raw egg whites at the same time.

Here are four measures that you can use to spot a healthy egg:

  1. It should have an intact shell with no cracks.

  2. It shouldn't smell bad.

  3. The white portion should be gel-like and not watery.

  4. The yellow portion should be round and firm.

Please consider sharing this post with folks in your life who want to eat eggs but don't due to misguided fears.

 
 

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Comments

Also, it's a good idea to test the uncooked egg before cracking the shell. To do this, place the egg in a cup covering it with cool water to look for water bubbles (not a good sign). If the egg sits straight up, it is not as fresh as an egg that remains on its side while resting in the cup of water (older eggs tend to stand on their end or slightly lean to one side). And don't forget to gently wash your egg shell and drying before breaking.
Just some suggestions that have worked over the years.

I'm researching raw eggs and left this comment on another website, but I thought you might appreciate it. I've been researching raw eggs because someone recommended my father consume large quantities of them as he has atrial fibrilation and just had two strokes. He has previosly avoided eggs because of the so-called cholesterol danger. What I found is that eggs contain the amino acid, Taurine, which is good for the heart, particularly atrial fibrilation. When I shared this info with my mom, she told me she knew of a man who lived to be 110 years old who consumed 10 raw eggs blended with orange juice every day of his life.

Those that choose to boil there eggs and want a "runny yolk" or as we call it here "soft boiled egg", I can tell you a little trick that I learnt when I was getting training as a Chef.

When you have lost track of the amount of time your eggs have been submerged in the boiling water and need to know if they are just right to bring out of the water at the point when the yolk is still runny and the white has well gone white and is firm and cooked!

Using a tablespoon, lift the egg out and place it onto a flat bench. You need a little room on the bench and or the floor is also a good spot to do this then the eggs cant fall any further and damage! Be carefulle grabbing the egg because it will be quiet hot. What the egg will do at the point of being just perfectly ready is stand up on it's end length ways when you spin the egg very quickly end-for-end!

First try this on a cold raw egg, you could observe that it wobles and does not stand up and spin end-for-end. Only at the point of reaching "soft boiled" and or further will the egg spin up and stand up spinning.

At first when I tell anyone I meet in life about this they do not believe, until I demonstrate!

Do eggs effect leaky gut syndrom? And both my children have autism and tummy issues can they eat eggs? Ive seen many improvements with all of our health since clean eatting just want to make sure im not making a mistake with eggs.

In my experience, eggs do not cause or worsen leaky gut syndrome. But it's always prudent to observe for individual intolerances.

Leaky gut is not a static state; as the gut lining improves, your body's ability to utilize different foods will improve. So please keep in mind that foods that are giving you trouble today may be fine to include in your diet when your gut is healthier.