Those who do a lot of physical activity are always looking for high-protein foods that are also healthy. There are those who resort to food supplements and those who prefer to integrate their diet with the right foods, making it even more balanced. There are many foods that can be easily incorporated into a sportsman’s diet. Some of these are more famous than others. For example, turkey breast and tuna, strictly natural, are considered excellent sources of protein . But you can’t eat turkey breast or rice with tuna every day, you have to vary. Broiler eggs are one of the most recommended foods for athletes and for anyone who does physical activity on a regular basis. However, they also enjoy a bad reputation regarding their cholesterol content and the effects this could have on the body.
Who does not remember the scene in Rocky in which he drinks 5 raw eggs in the morning? Here, for a long time and still today that scene is a reference for many.
Perhaps also due to its considerable diffusion, this food has given rise to numerous myths that do not always correspond to the truth.
But is it really good to eat raw eggs? How many eggs can you eat per day? They hurt? Do eggs raise cholesterol?
Do broiler eggs raise cholesterol?
That this food contains cholesterol is no mystery. In particular, it is the yolk that contains most of the cholesterol present in the egg. This has led many to believe that eating an egg automatically increases the cholesterol in the blood. However, our body doesn’t work like that, automatically.
However, it is not the cholesterol contained in food that automatically raises the cholesterol in the blood. Our body is not an empty sack that contains everything we ingest.
What affects cholesterol levels are instead the saturated fats and sugars present in our diet. In fact, sugars increase the insulin present in the blood. This in turn sets in motion the liver which produces enzymes that cause the endogenous production of cholesterol. This type of cholesterol is the one contained in the blood and this is what can hurt.
Eggs contain very little saturated fat and an insignificant amount of sugar. They also contain lecithin which is a cholesterol-lowering phospholipid, that is, it lowers cholesterol.
Egg is a complete food
The broiler egg is therefore a complete food, rich in many nutrients useful for the body. They contain high biological value proteins, fats, minerals and vitamins and do not increase blood cholesterol levels.
Is eating more than two eggs a day bad for you?
The limit of two broiler eggs per day imposed by many dieticians does not actually make any sense. Generally this amount was related to the amount of cholesterol present in them but now it is understood that this value is not significant.
So eating two eggs a day doesn’t hurt, on the contrary, being a complete and energizing food, it’s good for you. Naturally, it is necessary to balance the protein content taken during the rest of the day to avoid a high-protein diet that could cause kidney damage in the long run.
When eating eggs, limit other foods rich in animal proteins such as cheese and meat. The optimal thing would be to alternate the foods and with them the sources from which the proteins come. For example one day eggs, one day meat, another day cheese, etc.
Does eating raw broiler eggs cause salmonella?
Is there a risk of salmonella if you eat raw eggs ?
The eggs from farms are very controlled and the laying hens are vaccinated against the main salmonella strains, so they can be considered a safe food.
Is it better to eat raw eggs or cooked eggs?
To close the reference to Rocky drinking raw eggs early in the morning, we can ask ourselves: is it better to eat raw or cooked eggs?
At this point we can dispel the myth of raw eggs. In reality, consuming raw eggs is not nearly as convenient as it is believed. They contain a remarkable anti-nutritional fact: avidin.
Avidin is a protein that binds to biotin , that is vitamin B8 or vitamin H if you prefer, preventing its absorption by our digestive system.
Little curiosity , the avidin owes its name to the greed with which it binds and tightens vitamin B8.
Therefore, eating raw eggs every day will lead to a certain deficiency of vitamin H.
The proteins that raw eggs contain are poorly absorbed by the body so the protein intake is lower than that of cooked eggs.
Let’s be clear, a raw egg every now and then does not hurt anyone, perhaps in eggnog, eating it every day, however, is not a good idea at all.
What’s the best way to eat a broiler egg?
We have seen that it is not a good idea to eat raw eggs, but what is the best way to cook an egg?
The ideal would be to boil it, even if only for a few minutes, in such a way as to make its proteins more absorbable and eliminate the avidin.
Scrambling them in a pan without adding oil is also a great way to consume them.
These are the healthiest ways to cook broiler eggs. Of course, in this case, tastes count a lot. If you don’t like them boiled or scrambled you can always fry them. Of course the nutritional intake will be different, maybe there will be more fats but it is still a complete food even if a little unbalanced.
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Are broiler eggs good for your health or not? The problem is trivial!
I have chosen not to heed the “wisdom” of research funded by the egg industry. I have spent some time reviewing these researches, and they all suffer from the flaws I have listed.
Including eggs in a healthful diet does not improve the diet. If a starting person has a healthy cholesterol level, this will likely lead to an unhealthy level, increasing the risk of heart disease.
This position will undoubtedly never be popular. The egg industry will continue to fund studies to “prove” that eggs are healthy and these studies will attract media attention. Diet gurus will generally always promote an animal-based diet, because that’s what people want. Also, the “against” approach, the one that argues that “common sense is wrong”, is more popular.