This is a pretty basic question, but is it still a good, common practice to ingest raw eggs as a snack/meal ? I know this used to be very popular, and was really promoted alot by vince gironda and the like, however has it since been proven useless by science? Also, has the worry of salmonella and cholesterol made this less viable?

On a side note, on a whim, I decided to down about 5 raw eggs 30 mins ago and it was rather disgusting but not intolerable.... kind of salty and had the consistency of... well you know. In fact I can't help but think if that is what cum tastes like. If so then that is not all that bad. I am definitely going to bitch at my gf for not swallowing...

your body cannot properly digest and uncooked egg, I believe only about half of the calories become bioavailable.

Personally I would never eat egg whites as they contain a nutrient called avidin which can form a biotin-avidin complex, the bond is essentially irreversible and cannot be not broken during passage of the food through the GI tract as such you can become deficient in Biotin (sometimes refered to as vitamin H but is a class of B vitamin). There are a host of problems with this including lower capacity to use fats as an energy source. In fact the bond is so strong its used in some lab assays for antibody staining of muscle fibres.

If you want to use a lot of egg whites I suggest you take a supplemental dose of biotin maybe 35 mcg to 60 mcg/day. Also make sure you take it around 2 hours post egg intakes.

as a side not we have see in some athletes that consume large egg based protein powders displaying decreased vitamin K levels.

Regards

I see.... so I'm getting the feeling that eggs most definitely take a back seat to meat/dairy/nut protein sources around here?

Cooked eggs are fine. The protein is nearly 100% bio-available. Also, cooking the eggs deactivates avidin, so it will not interfere with biotin levels.

My first choice of protein would definately be eggs, except for post workout and pre bed.

Actually its 88% bioavailable based on Biological Availability and for many this is not the greatest indicator of a proteins usefullness.

True cooking like you say will deactivate avidin (the origional message was on raws is why I braught it up) however, with cooking you also run into problems as you produce ferrous sulfide which can inhibit mineral absorption copper to name one.

Not a problem for joe bloggs, but for those taking a large intake of eggs (like many on these boards)this can lead to long term deficiencies. Also cooking decreases the availability of quite a few vitamins. Hence, the use of raws + a supplemental intake of biotin!

not if they are cooked... eggs, if cooked are probably actually the best whole food protein source

Even when cooked, BV may increase, (although we have no idea if this happens in humans as BV values are based on animal nitrogen absorption and animal especially rat absorption studies are poor. Rat absorption is totally different for humans for many foods just take a look on pubmed under phytase for starters (Iqbal et al, 1994) we have no if the biological activity of the protein is still intact and as cooking denatures the proteins I am guessing this is changed. RAT data and PER is also another poor exemple of comparitive nutrition for humans. So for me eggs are not the best source because of the prev reasons even though they are cheep!

Be interested if you can quote me any human study thats has looked at "cooked" egg protein and BV? i.e. where do you get you BV value of "nearly" 100 from ?

Just started my new Carb Cycling diet today and My very first meal was "Eggs" hehe. How do egg beaters stand up to all of this? The nutrition info on them seemed very good with almost all protein.


My first healthy breakfast!

2 servings Eggbeaters scrambled *used a dab of I cant beleive its butter no fat to cook it with*
1/2 cup whole non cooked spinach on top with a slice of 1% fat Cheese = yummy!

Also had a piece of emeril laggasse (sp?) 100% Chicken Sausage with apples inside it and spice's (this stuff taste too good to be healthy)

2 Pieces of Whole wheat low carb bread (14g protein 14 carbs) stuff seems pretty good but kinda bland.

I believe egg beaters are simply egg whites.... overpriced ones at that So they fall under the same arguments listed above (which if you read, we have one seemingly knowledgable source claiming uncooked is best and 2 claiming cooked is best)

I know a few people who swear by raw eggs even to this day. One friend of mine looks incredible. He moved here about 10 years ago and when we all found out this guy was ingesting 35-50 raw eggs a day we all came down on him. Eventually we convinced him it was dangerous and to switch to cooking them and also finding more sources of protein.

Now here is where it gets fun and interesting. I swear to you this guy lost muscle over the next 6 months and he was not only eating more calories than before but taking in more total protein. He didn't even look leaner. He just looked flat. So finally I said to him to go back to the raw eggs and his old routine. So he did.

Not more than 4 weeks later and he was back to his old self and continued to gain and grow from there. This began a mini raw egg revolution in a few gyms near me and all the results were the same. Every guy who did this gained alot of muscle.

Hey I know it sounds crazy but it is true.

I've been trying to find information to back up and justify this, but as far as I can tell, it's just either a myth or a misunderstanding of the avidin/biotin complex.