Why should you eat more eggs?
If you didn’t know already, eggs are a super food that contains a wide range of fantastic nutrient, vitamins, minerals proteins and healthy fats that are vital for healthy living.
Eggs contain a small amount of nearly every vitamin and mineral that the human body requires, such as Iron, Potassium, Vitamin E, Calcium, Zinc, Folate and Manganese. The main vitamins found in eggs are described below, alongside the percentage of RDA of each specific vitamins. (RDA - Recommended Dietary Allowance).
One large egg contains:
Vitamin B12 (Cobalamin): 9% of the RDA.
Vitamin B2 (Riboflavin): 15% of the RDA.
Vitamin A: 6% of the RDA.
Vitamin B5 (Pantothenic Acid): 7% of the RDA.
Selenium: 22% of the RDA.
A single large egg contains only 77 calories. Within this small amount of calories, you get around 6g of protein and 5g of fats and a small amount of carbohydrates. It’s important to note that majority of the nutrients and fats are found in the yolk, the egg whites contains primarily just the protein.
Although high in cholesterol compared to other foods, this is not a bad thing. Essentially eating eggs improves your cholesterol because cholesterol is produced naturally in the body, the less cholesterol you ingest, the more your body produces and if you eat eggs, essentially your body produces less cholesterol, as it’s intaking some from the eggs, so your body doesn’t produce anywhere near as much. Consuming eggs increases the level of HDL (good cholesterol) and increases the size of LDL particles (bad cholesterol), which helps to reduce the risk of heart disease and many studies have given evidence to this.
Choline! Eggs are rich in a lesser known nutrient called Choline, which comes under the B Complex Vitamins. It’s a vitamin that is essential for numerous processes within the body and to ensure you remain healthy. A low choline intake has been linked to cardiovascular and liver disease, as well as neurological disorders.
Proteins are the main building blocks of human life, providing functional and structural purposes and they are made up of amino acids, which are connected together like links in a chain and these chains are made into the different shapes of proteins it builds. Eggs are one of the best sources of proteins, as they contain all of the essential amino acids in the correct ratios to be classes as a great source of protein. Many other foods are compares to eggs by biological value, which is a measure of protein quality, the reason for this is eggs are given a perfect biological value of 100, meaning it has the best balance of all the amino acids.
Antioxidants - Eggs contain two antioxidants that have a tremendous protective effect on the eyes. ( Lutein and Zeaxanthin), these are both found in the egg yolk. When consumed, they accumulate in the retina, which is the sensory part of the eye. These antioxidants can significantly reduce the risk of Cataracts and Macular Degenerations, which are two of the main causes of vision impairment in elderly people.
Eating eggs can help you lose weight! Due to the fact that they are low in Carbohydrates and contain a lot of protein and healthy fats, opting to eat eggs, over a carb heavy food with the same calorie content, will leave you fuller for longer because you don’t use up and burn off the calories as easily as you would if they were carbohydrate heavy calories.
All in all, eggs are an affordable, cheap and delicious option to increase vitamin, protein and nutrient intake and can help dramatically improve your diet. There are also hundreds of different ways to incorporate eggs into your meals - keep an eye our for our recipes page, which is coming soon!
