Egg yolks are the perfect example. All
the nutrition in an egg is in the yolk, but way too many people still insist on
buying egg whites and throwing the yolks away. Here’s why the yolks are
actually the best part – if you’re going to toss anything, toss the white, and keep all the
nutritional goodness in the middle.
Egg Yolks: Full of the Good Stuff
Egg yolks are full of important
nutrients, especially ones from free-range hens.
Vitamins and Minerals
Egg yolks contain almost all the
vitamins and minerals in the egg. There’s just no comparison. Here’s the data
for 3 egg yolks compared to 3 egg whites (Why 3? Because 3 eggs is around what
most people should be eating at a single meal).
|
|
3 Egg yolks contain… (%DV)*
|
3 egg whites contain…(%DV)
|
|
Vitamin A
|
15%
|
0
|
|
Vitamin D
|
15%
|
0
|
|
Vitamin E
|
6%
|
0
|
|
Thiamin (Vitamin
B1)
|
6%
|
0
|
|
Riboflavin (Vitamin
B3)
|
15%
|
27%
|
|
Vitamin B6
|
9%
|
0
|
|
Folate (Vitamin B9)
|
18%
|
0
|
|
Vitamin B12
|
18%
|
0
|
|
Choline
|
348 mg
|
1.2 mg
|
|
Calcium
|
6%
|
0
|
|
Iron
|
9%
|
0
|
|
Phosphorus
|
21%
|
0
|
|
Zinc
|
9%
|
0
|
|
Selenium
|
42%
|
27%
|
at least it gives you a meaningful
estimation – 0.9mg of Vitamin B6 means nothing to most people.
Egg
yolks are more nutritious than the whites in every category but one
(riboflavin).
The nutrients in eggs also have some
interesting specific benefits. For example,
just found that the Vitamin D in egg yolks might be particularly good for
diabetics. People with diabetes often have Vitamin D deficiencies, and the form
of Vitamin D in eggs could be particularly beneficial.
Free-range eggs have eggs from hens kept indoors.
Other Good Stuff in
Egg Yolks
Vitamins and minerals don’t actually cover
the whole range of good stuff found in eggs.
First of all, there are phospholipids. A
phospholipid is a type of fat important for building cell membranes. There are
a bunch of different types of phospholipids, and they’re found in several
different foods, but eggs are one of the main sources in the typical American
diet (unless you’re pounding down a lot of krill oil on the regular). A typical
egg contains around 1.3 grams of phospholipids, and most of that is in the
yolk. Egg phospholipids have benefits for…
- Egg
phospholipids may affect cholesterol and inflammation levels in beneficial
ways.
- Metabolic
health. found that phospholipids from egg yolks helped decrease blood
pressure and improve vascular function.
- Memory
and cognitive function. against
Alzheimer’s Disease, although it’s always worth mentioning that rat
studies are not human studies and this is still pretty preliminary.
Egg yolks also have antioxidants – that’s what gives them such a bright
yellow color.this revew goes
over some of the compounds in egg yolks with antioxidant activity. Vitamin E
and selenium were listed in the table above, but eggs also contain carotenoids,
which give them their yellow color. The carotenoids in egg yolks are more
bioavailable than the carotenoids in vegetables, because they come packaged
with fat.
The carotenoids in eggs are strongly
influenced by the hen’s diet, and free-range eggs have a lot more. That’s why
free-range eggs have a much more vibrant yellow color (sometimes almost orange)
than factory-farm eggs. Cut two eggs open side by side and you can see the
difference for yourself. The deeper and richer the color, the more carotenoids
in the egg.
Another antioxidant in egg yolks, phosvitin, may help reduce any
problems with oxidizing the iron in the yolks. Iron is an
important mineral, but it’s very vulnerable to a kind of damage called oxidation
(if the iron is outside your body, you can see this damage in the form of
rust). Inside your body, oxidation can make the iron inflammatory – or avoid eating a lot of iron. But the
iron in egg yolks is safe from oxidation because it comes packaged with
phosvitin.
Egg whites have some antioxidants, but
not the same ones. To get the full benefits of the antioxidants, you have to
eat the yolk as well.
Egg Whites: They Have Some Protein, and That’s Nice
It’s not like egg whites are bad for you. They do have some
protein, and that’s good – protein is an important part of a healthy diet. But
egg whites don’t have much of anything besides protein.
Also, egg whites have most of the
compounds that give people bad reactions to eggs. The proteins in egg whites
can be irritating or problematic, especially for people with, and cooking
doesn’t always completely denature them. If you can handle the potential
antinutrients in the white, great, but they’re not right for everyone.
Finding
Good Eggs
Since the nutrient content of free-range
eggs is so much higher, it’s worth the trouble to find them – but you’ll have
to fight through a bunch of misleading labels. Here’s how to interpret them:
source:https://paleoleap.com
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