The Nutritional Value of Egg Whites Versus Egg Yolks

10.11.2011 | 3 min read

What came first, the chicken or the egg? My vote is the egg, especially since this post is all about them. The latest and greatest debate lately has been: What is better for you, the egg white or egg yolk?

Eggs are a great source of a complete high-quality protein with few calories. One whole egg has about 5.5 grams of protein in only about 68 calories. Eggs contain choline, which is important, especially since our bodies cannot produce enough of it. Without enough choline, you can also become deficient in another essential nutrient, folic acid.

Let’s take a closer look at each.

Egg whites

Egg whites are a low-calorie, fat-free food. They contain the bulk of the egg’s protein. The egg white contains about 4 grams of protein, 55 mg of sodium and only 17 calories. A single egg white also offers:

1.3 micrograms of folate
6.6 mcg of selenium
2.3 mg of calcium
3.6 mg of magnesium
4.9 mg of phosphorus
53.8 mg of potassium

Egg yolks

It is true, egg yolks carry the cholesterol, the fat and saturated fat of the egg. However, what is often overlooked are the many nutrients that come with that, such as the fat-soluble vitamins, essential fatty acids and other nutrients. One egg yolk has around:

55 calories
4.5 grams of total fat
1.6 grams of saturated fat
210 mg of cholesterol
8 mg of sodium
2.7 grams of protein

The table below by the USDA compares the nutrients of the egg white versus the egg yolk, along with a comparison of the percentage of total nutrition found in the yolk and white.

Egg Yolks V. Egg Whites

The egg yolk has more actual nutrients, but the entire egg gives the most complete nutrition. Eggs are a quality source of protein, Vitamin A and Vitamin D.

Over the years, there have been different recommendations regarding the best part of the egg. New research shows that, contrary to previous belief, moderate consumption of eggs does not have a negative impact on cholesterol. In fact, recent studies have shown that regular consumption of two eggs per day does not affect a person’s lipid profile and may, in fact, improve it.

Research suggests that it is saturated fat that raises cholesterol rather than dietary cholesterol. However, if you suffer from coronary artery disease or have any heart health issues like high cholesterol, the recommendation is still to limit your dietary intake of cholesterol. Usually high-fat and high-saturated fat foods will also be higher in cholesterol.

Still have questions? Explore “the great egg debate” on this episode of A Healthier Michigan Podcast.

Raw organic farm eggs on the old background.

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About the Show

On this episode, Chuck Gaidica is joined by Grace Derocha, a registered dietitian, certified diabetes educator and health coach to discuss the great egg debate. Do they cause more harm than good?

“You don’t have to be mean to eggs, but I think it’s important to really reflect on where you’re at. That’s the most important thing. What are your health goals? Where are you today? Where do you want to be? Talk to your doctor or a dietitian and how that can impact your day and how you can make it work.” – Grace Derocha

In this episode of A Healthier Michigan Podcast, we explore:

Recent egg studies and their findings

Why eggs are considered a complete food

What makes eggs good or bad for you

The difference between free run, free range and cage-free eggs

The nutritional value of brown versus white eggs

The healthiest ways to prepare eggs

Listen on

Transcript

Chuck: This is A Healthier Michigan Podcast, episode 31. Coming up, we discuss how healthy are eggs?

Chuck: Welcome to A Healthier Michigan Podcast. This is a podcast dedicated to navigating how we can improve our health and well-being through small, healthy habits we can start implementing right now. I’m your host, Chuck Gaidica. Every other week, we’ll sit down with a certified health expert from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan. We’ll dive into topics covering nutrition, fitness, and so much more. Sometimes, all in the same podcast. And, in this episode, we’re talking about eggs. Did you know that we could take an entire episode and talk about eggs? This is really great though because you know one minute you can eat them, one minute you can’t. One minute you’re separating the yolk from the white. I don’t know, I’m so confused. So, we brought in the expert from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, Grace Derocha, a registered dietitian, certified diabetes educator and health coach.

Chuck: It is so great to see you again.

Grace: Always good to see you. Did you call me an eggs-pert?

Chuck: Egg-cellent. Now, I stole one of your other puns. Sorry.

Grace: So many awesome puns for you guys today.

Chuck: But, you know, this is really a thing, and you and I have talked about this in other episodes. You know, you can get a study, and all of a sudden, I can’t go to the movie theater anymore and eat popcorn and okay, if it’s in moderation, it’s okay. And, then I can’t eat Chinese food. It seems like they go after certain things and we get in a tizzy.

Grace: Yes, we do.

Chuck: Some of us do who maybe pay attention. And, now there’s a study on eggs.

Grace: Yes. So, there’s been lots of studies on eggs, but the most recent study has told us that we shouldn’t have them. We’re going back and forth here, and it’s funny because as a dietitian and an expert about food and nutrition for someone, it’s really confusing. It’s can be confusing for me. So, I am hoping to help people understand, to take that deeper dive into the research and understand their body so that they know what they should and shouldn’t be doing.

Chuck: To balance this recent study, and that’s always intriguing because they do come and go, right? One’s a sample of two people and one’s a sample of 30,000, so okay. But, when you get that balance, I’ve heard physical fitness trainers actually say out loud, “The egg, the little egg is the most compact, perfect thing you can eat in your day to help with protein, etc, etc.”

Grace: Yes.

Chuck: Vitamins, minerals.

Grace: I do love eggs.

Chuck: You had them for breakfast, right?

Grace: I did have them for breakfast.

Chuck: See, I had an apple and peanut butter, so I didn’t really do it well this morning. How did you have your eggs this morning?

Grace: So, instead of making omelets, I like a veggie scramble because basically if I make an omelette, I just do that anyways. So, there was zucchini, peppers, some feta cheese, spinach, tomato.

Chuck: And, full eggs? Or, are you cutting out … Like one egg and then a whole bunch of egg whites?

Grace: Full. Full eggs.

Chuck: Okay.

Grace: So, there’s two eggs. Two full eggs.

Chuck: Yeah, but what’s the problem if in our own context, in our own little world, if we understand we don’t have high cholesterol, there’s not a problem. Why would we worry? Or, what is the study saying to us anyway?

Grace: Yes, so the most recent study, and I’m going to tell you guys, and this is interesting and I want people to take away from this a few things. One, research studies are important, and two, make sure you know what you’re reading instead of just skimming the headline.

Chuck: Okay, which is often all we’re exposed to.

Grace: Yes. So, in this research study, it’s actually super interesting because they did have quite a few people, but what they found was that they had people recall how they ate. It was like 24 hour to 48 hour recall of the food that they consumed, and then they followed them for years to see how their health was. And, what they had found out from taking all of this data … It was so much data because there’s so many people. I’m trying to look for the exact numbers here.

Chuck: Wasn’t this the one with tens of thousands of people?

Grace: Yes, there was, and all in the adult age, and they were studied from 1985 to 2016 so that’s a long time. What I think is interesting is that because it was a recall, like recalling what they ate, some people’s memories aren’t that good all the time.

Chuck: So, they weren’t logging anything?

Grace: No.

Chuck: They were just saying “You know, Thursday …”

Grace: Yes, so they were recalling and trying to remember what they ate. And, also there’s other factors than just the eggs in this study. Did you exercise? How old were you? Were you having a lot of other fat or desserts and treats? Were you very sedentary? So, there’s a lot of things that tie into what they were saying the result was is that eggs increased your risk for heart disease and coronary artery disease and imbalanced your cholesterol numbers in a bad way. But again, think about how many things impact us in a day. Are these people exercising? Are they not exercising? Do they drink water? Do they not drink water? Do they eat regularly? Do they fast? Are they on some kind of diet where they only had eggs? You know?

Chuck: Well, can I point out too, that if you really love eggs and that’s your recollection, how many of those people had pork sausage or bacon with it, or a ton of hash browns or slathered butter on their toast. You know what I mean?

Grace: Right, right.

Chuck: To your point, it could be a whole bunch of other stuff.

Grace: Absolutely.

Chuck: I’m sticking up for eggs is what I’m doing.

Grace: Me Too. So, to not kill the impact of the rest of what we’re going to talk about, I think at the end of the day when we’re talking about eggs, you need to look at everything, including the studies in a deeper dive into them.

Chuck: So, let’s put the study aside for a minute because we can always come back to it. How healthy are eggs for us? What’s in an egg that we should really know about and why would a trainer look at me and say, “That little egg, that’s one of the best things you can include in your diet.”

Grace: This is why. Eggs are a very complete food because they give you a lot of impact with protein and some fat, tons of vitamins and minerals. I’ll go over some of those in a second. But, all in about 65-80 calories, depending on how big your egg is, and they’re filling. There was a research study that was also done particularly on eggs and how when you ate two eggs in the morning, you were able to lose weight more efficiently, and I’m going to tell you why. Because, eggs have protein and they have fat, and because of those two macronutrients, which I know we’ve talked about before, they keep you full longer. So, then there might be less of a tendency to snack later on, and you are getting some of that really good protein. The egg whites have all the amino acids, which is basically protein broken down, that you could ever want.

Chuck: So, when I make an omelette, I’ll use one or two full eggs and then I’ll add three or four egg whites just so I can get a big pan full of stuff with my veggies.

Grace: Absolutely.

Chuck: So, I’m adding one what? I’m adding more protein and I’m adding more minerals and vitamins with the egg whites, and really hardly any calories.

Grace: Right, exactly, and again, like I said, it’s such a minimal amount of calories, and I’m glad that you are still using yolk because there’s a lot of good things in the yolk, too. Minerals like choline, which is good for brain health, lutein, which is good for eye health.

Chuck: You look good this morning. That’s eggs, I’m just saying.

Grace: Yeah, see? There’s a lot of things in the yolk too that are important for our diet as far as minerals.

Chuck: So, why such a bad rap? Is it because of the way you know … When you scrambled this morning, share with us, what did you put in the pan? Or was it a nonstick pan? Do you put any olive oil?

Grace: I sprayed.

Chuck: You do? Okay, so it’s almost nothing.

Grace: Sometimes, if I’m making a larger batch, I might use a little avocado oil, but it was just for me.

Chuck: Even for the kids if you’re having breakfast for dinner?

Grace: Yes. Brinner. They love Brinner. My kids love brinner.

Chuck: I don’t know why I don’t ever use that phrase. I’ve heard it, but I just say breakfast for dinner. Brinner. Okay. I’m going to start using it.

Grace: Yes. They love cheesy eggs. They love … Kahlea always calls them yolky eggs. She loves a yolky Egg.

Chuck: What’s that?

Grace: Sunny side up, or over easy.

Chuck: Okay, yeah. Well, that’s good. That’s my girl. Yeah, sunny side up.

Grace: So, you don’t have to be mean to eggs, but I think it’s important to really reflect on where you’re at. That’s the most important thing. What are your health goals? Where are you today? Where do you want to be? Talk to your doctor or a dietitian and how that can impact your day and how you can make it work. I love a hard boiled egg too, on my salad, as a snack.

Chuck: Sure. So, if I need to understand my health better, and a lot of us are doing this now, I’m able to log in. I can see my blood result like boom. When I’m looking at that stuff, or when I’m talking to my doctor during my annual physical, what are the things I should see as red flags that would say, “Ooh, be careful about eggs.” Is it strictly going to be cholesterol? What else would I be worried about?

Grace: Yeah, one of the main things would be cholesterol. I’m actually really glad that you brought this up. Our body naturally actually makes cholesterol. Our liver makes cholesterol naturally because we need it. And, then we also get cholesterol from the food we eat, and that would come from animal products. Egg comes from an animal, so that’s why there is that cholesterol … I don’t want to. I’m putting it air quotes … “scare” when we’re talking about eggs. I never want people to overdo anything, just so we’re clear. But, here’s another thing is that when you are actually consuming some eggs, our body’s very efficient and smart. It will then say, “Hey, liver, they’re having some cholesterol. Maybe you don’t have to make as much today.”

Chuck: And, that’s if you’re a “normal” person, because I’ve got a buddy that stays away from everything, and his system is producing so much cholesterol, it’s of course crazy. I mean, there are a lot of people who have to go on statin drugs, etc, etc.

Grace: Absolutely. I had a girlfriend like that in high school. She was a soccer player, super fit, and she just genetically … and that’s another part of knowing your body, knowing your family history. Her body just made a lot of cholesterol, and she was this tiny little toothpick, always ate healthy, soccer player-

Chuck: Isn’t that wild?

Grace: Just so we’re clear, I’m not saying that this happens for everyone, but our body does like to be as efficient as possible, so knowing some of those things again plays into that.

Chuck: So, when we look at eggs, I know there are all kinds of eggs and products. You and I were talking off mic about loving cookie dough. I spit in the face of destiny. I’m going to just eat it every once in a while. I know it’s bad for you, maybe, but let’s talk about how many different kinds of eggs we’re now seeing because for a while, I was on the Egg Beater thing. Because even though I admitted to you, I will eat egg whites, I’ve got to have yolk in there. You can’t find enough sriracha in a 55 gallon drum to make egg whites taste great to me by themselves. I don’t know what it is. I liked egg whites-

Grace: Because, fat tastes good.

Chuck: Is that what it is? It’s the fat?

Grace: Mm-hmm (affirmative). The fat adds flavor.

Chuck: Okay, so I’m probably not alone, right?

Grace: No, you are not.

Chuck: Are Egg Beaters okay? Or, is that too much processing from your point of view?

Grace: I would rather have people use the real egg.

Chuck: Okay, so even if you use one yolk or two and then add more egg whites, that’s better?

Grace: Yes.

Chuck: Okay. In a restaurant though? Same thing? Just ask them to prepare it the way you want it?

Grace: Absolutely. I always say this. My husband works in the restaurant industry. He would always rather have people ask because they have to make it anyways. The worst thing they could say is no, right, because it’s premixed or whatever it might be, but you might as well ask.

Chuck: Sure. I think every time I’ve asked, they’re very good about it. Or, they’ll say Egg Beaters, $.50 or a buck more. I may elect to get that, but usually they’re pretty good. This isn’t a quiz really, but these are all kinds of different eggs. We know about white eggs. What is a free run versus a free range? Do you know the difference?

Grace: So, free run and free range are the same-ish, but cage free and free run or free range are different. Free run or free range means that they literally get to run around the farm or wherever they are.

Chuck: So, you’re exercising? “Come here, little chicken. Come here.” to get the egg.

Grace: Yes, Exactly.

Chuck: So, you’re working off some calories.

Grace: Those free run or free range are cage-free and running around. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen any of these pictures, but when they say just cage-free, it doesn’t mean that they’re running around. They could be jam packed.

Chuck: I’ve seen those pictures.

Grace: I know. Those are sad. That’s the biggest difference.

Chuck: My brother up north near Cadillac has chickens, right? He’s got this command center in the basement where one side of his brain is high tech man, and then outside he’s got blueberry bushes, all kinds of great stuff. He loves being outside. I think he would do that for a living if he could actually pay the bills. But, he’s got chickens and roosters. They’re in a henhouse, I guess. Right?

Grace: Yeah, yeah.

Chuck: It’s got netting or screening around it. What would that be considered? Free range?

Grace: Are they allowed to come in and out?

Chuck: No, not the whole yard. So that’s more free range then?

Grace: Yeah, but he doesn’t have that many. Right? They’re not like jam packed-

Chuck: No, he’s got half a dozen to a dozen, but he’s worried more about the coyotes, not so much about the chickens cause he loses them.

Grace: I know. Right, yes, so that would be free range and not free run.

Chuck: Okay, and then Omega-3 eggs. How do you add more Omega-3? Is that considered too much processing?

Grace: Oh, that’s a good question.

Chuck: What are they doing? They’re actually injecting it into an egg?

Grace: Yeah.

Chuck: Wow. Do I need more?

Grace: Yes. Most people do. We talked about heart health and fat before, and that ratio for most people, especially Americans is off. We are not getting enough Omega-3’s and we get too much Omega-6.

Chuck: So, this isn’t just a breeding or feeding thing with the chicken, they’re actually putting it into the egg before it gets to my carton that I bring home.

Grace: Different brands do different things. So, you want to take a peak at what brands you’re buying to see how they’re doing it.

Chuck: Okay. Wow.

Grace: It’s interesting. Or, Go eat an avocado.

Chuck: Uh huh. That gives me the same stuff?

Grace: That’s going to get you your Omega-3’s, so you could have avocado toast with a poached egg on top. I just got myself hungry again. That would be delicious.

Chuck: So, then when I get these eggs every once in awhile from my brother, they’re brown. I can take the stainless steel bowl and I go to crack this egg, and you would think I’m denting the edge of the bowl. What is it about the brown egg that is so different, and it can’t just be the coloration that’s giving me this very, very thick shell.

Grace: That’s a great question. So, you’re getting them fresh from the farm, from-

Chuck: I am. I can actually point to the chicken and say, “There’s Biff.”

Grace: … from that actual chicken.

Chuck: I can.

Grace: When we get them that way, you’re getting them directly … and, think about that. The egg shell protects the baby.

Chuck: The potential baby.

Grace: Potential baby that’s in there. When we get them in the store, unfortunately a lot of time has gone past, so the egg shell starts to thin.

Chuck: I’ve always assumed that thin eggshells were just a breeding thing. You’re saying over time the shells actually get thinner?

Grace: They can, mm-hmm (affirmative).

Chuck: Oh, interesting.

Grace: Yeah, but that is a good point. The way you breed your chickens, too, can make a difference over time, and for a long time people thought there was something wrong with the brown egg shells. That is the natural state.

Chuck: Well, what about my mind that thinks there’s something better about them? Is that a falsehood as well? Because, if I crack that egg open, I can tell you the yolk looks richer. It’s a more golden yellow. It’s not the light yellow, fast, I got to move, do two scrambled, out the door. It looks much better for me.

Grace: I personally like the brown egg because it’s less processing. What they’ve done with the shell of eggs is basically bleached and washed it.

Chuck: Really?

Grace: Yeah, a lot of-

Chuck: You mean all these eggs that we get are typically brown or tan eggs?

Grace: Oh, yeah.

Chuck: Before they get to our house?

Grace: Oh yeah.

Chuck: Come on.

Grace: Yes.

Chuck: Oh, I think I want to stop that. Seriously, and none of that leaches into the inside of the egg? Wait a minute.

Grace: Dun dun dun.

Chuck: Oh.

Grace: So again, I always say this, and I feel like real food is kind of the key. If we can get it in its realest state, that’s going to be ideal.

Chuck: But, you know what happens, and in America, the cat’s out of the bag. My wife came home once with stuff from, I’ll just say it, Costco. I love me some Costco.

Grace: Me too.

Chuck: She brings all this stuff home. I said, “Let me ask this question. If someone said to you, you could purchase the same exact items and every single one of them were made in Michigan, if possible, and you had to pay 20, 25% more, what would you do?” Her answer was, “Well, my job is to bring home bargains for the family.” We’ve got to save our dollars because we had five kids at the time at home. I think the same thing applies to eggs. We want to get the brown eggs, or the healthier eggs, but they’re on sale for $.59 cents a dozen.

Grace: I know.

Chuck: So, we have to fight that urge. Would you urge us to fight the urge?

Grace: I would say, again, coming back to what I was saying about listening to your body, listening to where you are in your lifestyle and what you can and can’t afford, being smart about it and trying to sometimes get those, like getting the the organic, cage-free free range eggs when they might be on sale, or this is something that I do because I will buy eggs on sale as well. If I’m cooking with it in something, I’m like, “Oh, I can use white egg.” And, then if I’m eating an egg because I want to taste the-

Chuck: Interesting.

Grace: It tastes better to me, too, having it that way. So, today I had brown eggs if you will, in my veggie egg scramble.

Chuck: Very interesting. So, then there is this other extension-

Grace: I’m giving all my tips.

Chuck: No, but it’s good because I think so many of us are just, “That’s it. They’re on sale. We got them. Let’s go, let’s do it.” Or, let’s make our cookie dough on a Sunday night, or Saturday night, whenever we have the craving. When you look at these enriched eggs, Omega-3 eggs, aren’t vitamin enhanced enriched eggs … Are they similar where they’re putting something in them that’s additional?

Grace: Yeah, usually. Or, sometimes how they feed the hens can make a difference, too.

Chuck: Okay, so it’s like grass fed beef. It’s kind of similar to-

Grace: Yeah, as opposed to-

Chuck: Do you look for that with the eggs that you’re getting yourself?

Grace: It’s hard to know that or find that all the time. Unless, like how your brother has eggs and you know what he’s feeding them. I definitely do that with my meat.

Chuck: You know what’s funny? I don’t know what he’s feeding them. I mean, I’ve thrown … I’m assuming it’s corn, right, but I don’t know what else. They’ve got to just be eating natural stuff off the ground too, right?

Grace: Yeah, absolutely.

Chuck: And, that’s better for me, no matter what kind of bug it is, right?

Grace: I think so.

Chuck: Okay, all right. So, now we understand that there’s this whole range of eggs that we can deal with. We could look at some of the packaging. Sometimes, they tell us a cool story about where the eggs are coming from, so that may put us over, and we’ll spend the buck and a half instead of $.59 cents and go crazy and got some great eggs. When you go to cook your eggs, you talked about just using a spray. Explain that for everybody, because I fall on and off the wagon when it comes to spray. When I’m out, I’m probably out for a month and a half or something. I mean, I just forget to buy it.

Grace: There’s lots of different ways to cook eggs. You can use a cooking spray so that you’re not adding any more fat, but then other people, when you’re at a restaurant usually, they’re using butter or oil. That’s why it’s…

Chuck: And, probably not olive oil. It’s probably just a vegetable oil blend, right?

Grace: Yes, absolutely. They are trying to infuse as much flavor at a restaurant to sell that to you. But, I still think they taste good with … Cooking spray is great. And, you can hard boil eggs, you can soft boil eggs-

Chuck: Poach them.

Grace: Poach them. I love a good poached egg on my avocado toast. That’s real. That’s one of my favorite things to make.

Chuck: Is it really?

Grace: Yeah, or even a poached egg on top of a Caesar Salad, and I use that as part of the dressing, the yolk. Doesn’t that sound good?

Chuck: You know there’s a trend of putting, if it makes any sense, on a giant Burger, a loosely fried egg, right?

Grace: Yes, definitely.

Chuck: Have you had one? Go ahead, you can admit it.

Grace: Yeah, of course, yeah. You know, I am not the food police. I’m an eating dietitian.

Chuck: But, that’s a crazy thing in my mind that you would add an egg to a burger. I’ve tried it. It’s okay.

Grace: I love … I call them a BLAT, which is like a BLT, but I add avocado and egg.

Chuck: Oh, wow. Very interesting. You are definitely not enrolled in the police academy for dietitians, right?

Grace: No. Now, I want one, but I haven’t made one in a really long time.

Chuck: But, it’s in moderation, right?

Grace: Yes, absolutely.

Chuck: You’re not having it every day.

Grace: And, I’m listening. I know where my health’s at. It’s pretty good, so I try to, again, follow what I tell people is to hone in on where your health goals are, where you want them to be, what can improve upon, what you need to add in, what you might need to take out a little bit of so that you’re making smart decisions so you can live happier and healthier.

Chuck: So, if we use you once again as the poster child for egg cooking this morning, you added a lot of veggies, you said.

Grace: Yes, tons of veggies.

Chuck: So, what are you getting out of those? It’s obvious you’re getting some vitamins-

Grace: Yes, vitamins, minerals, fiber.

Chuck: Mm-hmm (affirmative), which eggs don’t really give you.

Grace: Right. Antioxidants, phytochemicals. So, antioxidants and phytochemicals you can’t get in a pill. You have to get them from your fruits and vegetables and your food.

Chuck: Do you ever put spinach in there?

Grace: I do, yes. One of my favorites is spinach, tomato, kind of a Greek-

Chuck: Oh yeah.

Grace: I think there’s lots of ways that you can use eggs. You know, we use them in cooking. Obviously, they’re a binder. I made meatloaf the other night. Well, I call it meatloaf but it’s more like a turkey veggie loaf.

Chuck: Yeah, but you’re right. It does do that because what else … I mean, in some sweet type recipes, like a cake, I’ve seen them use apple sauce or something, but when it comes to meat, what else is there to bind it really?

Grace: Yeah, the food science behind it definitely helps with a lot of cooking and cooking preparation.

Chuck: Yeah. And, then you talked about using … I keep saying olive oil. Did you say avocado oil?

Grace: I did.

Chuck: What other kind of oils should we be thinking of? Even if we just put a dash, just to get the pan?

Grace: Avocado oil or olive oil are my two favorites.

Chuck: And why?

Grace: Because they are heart healthy fats. The reason why I usually use avocado oil because its smoke point is higher, and sometimes if I’m cooking something that is cooking for a long time or with high heat, the olive oil will give it a little bit more-

Chuck: Or, you get “Hey Mom” and your turn your head, you’ll know it’s not high point.

Grace: Yes, definitely. I want to tell the people, I make … We either call them Hulk eggs or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle eggs.

Chuck: What are those?

Grace: These are for Tommy. I take spinach or kale, and I cook them in garlic and a little oil, and then I puree them so that I put them into the egg so it really is green eggs.

Chuck: No kidding?

Grace: At first, Tommy wasn’t getting his greens in. He’ll eat them now, but I would call these either the Incredible Hulk eggs or the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle eggs, and I would get him to eat the green eggs.

Chuck: Oh, is that brilliant. That’s brilliant. Well, you know our son Matt, right?

Grace: Yes.

Chuck: Matt grew up, if it were pizza, he’d eat it all the time. Breakfast, lunch and dinner. And, now he’s in early thirties and he’s just Mr. … Well, he’s the Hulk.

Grace: Yeah, he is the Hulk.

Chuck: So, he’s always concentrating on eating, so I just want to encourage everybody when your kids are little, there is hope that eventually they will actually eat their greens, you know, because I’m watching it happen in my son’s lifetime.

Grace: Yeah, absolutely. I love that.

Chuck: When we talk also about this idea of eggs, is there such a thing as over cooking? Because I know my dad always used to say … let me think of how he would say it. He loved his scrambled. He would say, “I love them mushy.”

Grace: Yes.

Chuck: Okay. He meant runny. Literally he meant that’s okay, and everybody’s got their own thing, but is there such a thing as over cooking an egg? Can you cook the goodness out of one?

Grace: Chuck, that’s a good question. So, that’s an egg-cellent question.

Chuck: Thank you. Thank you.

Grace: So, anytime we’re cooking anything, we’re going to lose a little bit of nutrition. Right? But, then it’s funny cause the flip side with eggs is if it’s raw … You’ve seen that on menus. When you ask us to make it sunny side up, just so you know, there’s that warning because there’s that risk of food poisoning, so I would say it depends.

Chuck: Like a hard boiled egg, that’s pretty well cooked.

Grace: Yes.

Chuck: But, it’s still filled with goodness.

Grace: Definitely, yeah. You’re not taking away so much that it wouldn’t be worth eating for the nutrition of it.

Chuck: So, if we wrap things up, and it’s hard to believe we’ve done an entire episode on eggs, but you know, there’s so much fascinating stuff you’ve talked about, and we kind of left this study in the trail of dust behind us because it’s there, but there are so many good reasons to consider eggs.

Grace: Yeah, and I don’t want to dismiss any research study ever, but I also want to make sure that we’re being very clear about how the study was run, what they saw. A lot of times, you can pull different statistics out of something to come to a conclusion, but it might not be the right conclusion for every single person reading it.

Chuck: Sure. So, as I’m going about my day today, and today is a packed day for me, I could have considered taking a hard boiled egg with me in the car, right?

Grace: Yes.

Chuck: Wrap this up. What’s the takeaway about understanding eggs and how they relate to us?

Grace: This is what I want people to remember. Go to your doctor, look at where your cholesterol numbers are at. Look at your family history, see what has been a detriment to other family members and what might be a part of your genes. Have that conversation with your doctor, and then be smart about your egg consumption. I don’t want people to have a dozen eggs a day, but like one or two a day, depending on their health, or maybe a couple of times a week depending on where you’re at. Eggs do not have to be the enemy. You don’t have to have to cut them all out, but being smart about your health and your life to know when to include them is the key.

Chuck: I’m going to mark this down, hang on. Eggs don’t have to be the enemy. Grace Derocha. This is going down with some of the greatest quotes in history. You know what? It’s really good advice. It really is good advice.

Grace: And, that’s really with any food and any research study you might be reading. Be smart. Take a peek at it. Take a peek at yourself, like really have a moment of self reflection. I know people that eat too many eggs. I also know people that stay away from them because they’re scared.

Chuck: I know people who have eaten … When you say a dozen eggs, floating in bacon grease because they’re on this super crazy Keto … I mean, way beyond normal, and I’m thinking-

Grace: Don’t get me started.

Chuck: Every day? Every day, really?

Grace: I know. Don’t get me started on Keto.

Chuck: Okay, well we’ve run out of time so we don’t have to do that. Grace, it’s good to see you.

Grace: Thank you so much, Chuck.

Chuck: As always. Listen, we want you to be thinking about this takeaway. Know Yourself, understand your context. Make sure you see a doctor. Get some good advice there. Great stuff from Grace today. We want to thank you for listening to A Healthier Michigan Podcast brought to you by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan. If you like the show, you want to learn more about it, you want to check out some previous episodes, go to AHealthierMichigan.org/podcast. You can leave reviews there, ratings on iTunes and Stitcher. To get episodes on your smartphone or tablet, just be sure to subscribe to us on Apple Podcast, or you can go to Spotify, or your favorite podcast app. That’s it. Have an egg-cellent day. Come on, I had to do it again. I’m Chuck Gaidica. Take care.