Dr. Eric Berg on How to Buy and Cook Eggs For Maximum Nutrition

Eggs are very sensitive to heat. Therefore the less heat you apply to eggs, the more nutrition you are going to get.

For example, fry an egg over easy so the yolk stays runny. Boil an egg without overcooking it. Try not to overcook scrambled eggs. Poached eggs are really good too.

The problem with consuming raw eggs is that it can deplete other nutrients like biotin. So it’s best to cook the white part, but leave the yolk runny.

A consumption of lutein and zeaxanthin rich foods, like eggs, should be combined with reducing consumption of inflammatory vegetable oils like soy, corn, canola and cottonseed oil, which promote free radical damage.

Does Orange or Yellow Yolks Tell Me About the Quality of the Egg?

Generally speaking, when you see the darker orange yolk it's usually from pasture-raised organic eggs. The factory farm egg yolks are going to be yellow unless there is something added to change the color, which also can happen.

Image Source: https://www.dsm.com/anh/en/feedtalks/eggyolk-pigmentation-guidelines.html

The reason why the egg yolk is a deeper orange is because these chickens are pasture raised. They're eating grass or insects. Chickens are also fed with grains, but if you’re buying organic eggs, it’s at least GMO-free. The combination of being outside in the sun and the diet change the composition of the carotenoids in the eggs. So when you see a deeper rich orange yolk, you're getting more antioxidants versus the factory farm eggs. Therefore always seek out organic and pasture raised eggs.

Factory Farm Eggs

If the label says “Vegetarian Fed” the chickens are fed with GMO grains, soy and corn. They are also not getting any sun. Even if it says “Cage-Free”, the chickens may be outside the cage but they're still in the barn and rarely get to go outside. With factory farm eggs you’ll see a more pale yellow color yolk.

Note that even though chickens are pasture raised the yolk may not always be orange. It could be yellow but the color is a deeper, richer yellow and not pale.

Do Eggs Increase the Risk of Early Death from a Heart Attack ?

Did you know that our body makes cholesterol? Probably. But did you realise that our body makes 3,000 milligrams of cholesterol per day, which is equivalent to consuming 14 eggs every single day.

It is a common misconception that consuming 300 milligrams of cholesterol a day is going to increase your risk or heart disease.

According to one of the studies on eggs, serum cholesterol and coronary heart disease, it was concluded that the differences in egg consumption were unrelated to blood cholesterol levels or to coronary heart disease incidence.

Here's another one: dietary cholesterol from eggs increases the ratio of total cholesterol to high-density lipoprotein cholesterol. But HDL is considered a good cholesterol, so it didn't say that it actually increased the bad cholesterol.

You don't have to worry about consuming eggs, they're totally healthy. An Egg actually has a near-perfect in its nutrition profile. It has almost all the minerals and fat soluble vitamins. It’s a great source of protein, a healthy source of fat and a low-carb-keto-friendly food.

Most of the nutrition is inside the yolk. All the fats, vitamins and essential fatty acids are there. You can think of the yolk as a multivitamin. There's very little nutrition in the egg whites. So, always eat the whole egg, especially if you want to lower cholesterol, because the antidote to cholesterol is lecithin which is contained in the egg yolk.

Learn How to Read the Label

The problem when you buy eggs is that they are labeled with gimmicks:

1. Hormone Free or Antibiotic Free. Eggs have been hormone free since 1949. It's illegal to put hormones in the feed of these chickens.
   
   
2. Free-range doesn't mean anything. It only means that they’ve punched a couple holes in the barn to let the chickens out for maybe a couple of minutes. But most of the chickens never even go out of the barn because they're not allowed out until they are older.
   
   
3. Some of the chickens that are spiked with Omega-3 fatty acids are from fish oil, which gives the egg fish taste. Therefore I would recommend the ones that are spiked only with flax oil.

Conclusion

Eggs are very high in nutrients and pretty much have every single vitamin and mineral. However, most of the nutrients are in the egg yolk so it is important to eat the whole egg for maximum health benefits.