We are a nation of egg addicts. The average person gets through at least two a week, making them one of Britain’s most popular foods. Plenty of us gorge on many more than this of course, whether you’re having two scrambled eggs crowning your toast each morning, or knocking back a full dozen after hitting some serious weights at the gym. Yet eggs have fallen in and out of health fashion over the years…….Continue reading….
Source: Telegraph
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Critics:
Eggs contain multiple proteins that gel at different temperatures within the yolk and the white, and the temperature determines the gelling time. Egg yolk becomes a gel, or solidifies, between 61 and 70 °C (142 and 158 °F). Egg white gels at different temperatures: 60 to 73 °C (140 to 163 °F). The white contains exterior albumen which sets at the highest temperature. In practice, in many cooking processes the white gels first because it is exposed to higher temperatures for longer.
Salmonella is killed instantly at 71 °C (160 °F), but also is killed from 54.5 °C (130.1 °F), if held at that temperature for sufficiently long time periods. To avoid the issue of salmonella, eggs may be pasteurized in-shell at 57 °C (135 °F) for an hour and 15 minutes. Although the white then is slightly milkier, the eggs may be used in normal ways. Whipping for meringue takes significantly longer, but the final volume is virtually the same.
If a boiled egg is overcooked, a greenish ring sometimes appears around the egg yolk due to changes to the iron and sulfur compounds in the egg.[38] It also may occur with an abundance of iron in the cooking water. Overcooking harms the quality of the protein. Chilling an overcooked egg for a few minutes in cold water until it is completely cooled may prevent the greenish ring from forming on the surface of the yolk.
Peeling a cooked egg is easiest when the egg was put into boiling water as opposed to slowly heating the egg from a start in cold water. In February 2025, scientists published research confirming that periodic cooking of an egg is the best way to preserve the distinct textures of each part of an egg as well as its nutritional value. The method requires alternating between boiling and lukewarm water: two minutes in 100 °C (212 °F) water, two minutes at 30 °C (86 °F), repeated eight times.
Although the age of the egg and the conditions of its storage have a greater influence, the bird’s diet affects the flavor of the egg. For example, when a brown-egg chicken breed eats rapeseed (canola) or soy meals, its intestinal microbes metabolize them into fishy-smelling triethylamine, which ends up in the egg. The unpredictable diet of free-range hens will produce likewise, unpredictable egg flavors. Duck eggs tend to have a flavor distinct from, but still resembling, chicken eggs.
Eggs may be soaked in mixtures to absorb flavor. Tea eggs, a common snack sold from street-side carts in China, are steeped in a brew from a mixture of various spices, soy sauce, and black tea leaves to give flavor. Hard boiled eggs are cracked slightly before being simmered in the marinade for more flavor, also giving them their marble pattern.
More than half the calories found in eggs come from the fat in the yolk; 50 grams of chicken egg (the contents of an egg just large enough to be classified as “large” in the US, but “medium” in Europe) contains approximately five grams of fat. Saturated fat (palmitic, stearic, and myristic acids) makes up 27 percent of the fat in an egg. The egg white consists primarily of water (88 percent) and protein (11 percent), with no cholesterol and 0.2 percent fat.
There is debate over whether egg yolk presents a health risk. Some research suggests dietary cholesterol increases the ratio of total to HDL cholesterol and, therefore, adversely affects the body’s cholesterol profile; whereas other studies show that moderate consumption of eggs, up to one a day, does not appear to increase heart disease risk in healthy individuals. Harold McGee argues that the cholesterol in the egg yolk is not what causes a problem, because fat (particularly saturated fat) is much more likely to raise cholesterol levels than the consumption of cholesterol.
One systematic review and meta-analysis of egg consumption found that higher consumption of eggs (more than 1 egg/day) was associated with a significant reduction in risk of coronary artery disease. Another systematic review and meta-analysis of dietary cholesterol and egg consumption found that egg consumption was associated with an increased all-cause mortality and CVD mortality.
These contrary results may be due to somewhat different methods of study selection and the use primarily of observational studies, where confounding factors are not controlled. A 2018 meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials found that consumption of eggs increases total cholesterol (TC), LDL-C and HDL-C compared to no egg-consumption but not to low-egg control diets.
In 2020, two meta-analyses found that moderate egg consumption (up to one egg a day) is not associated with an increased cardiovascular disease risk. A 2020 umbrella review concluded that increased egg consumption is not associated with cardiovascular disease risk in the general population. Another umbrella review found no association between egg consumption and cardiovascular disorders. Egg consumption does not increase hypertension risk.
A 2016 meta-analysis found that consumption of up to one egg a day may contribute to a decreased risk of total stroke. Two recent meta-analyses found no association between egg intake and risk of stroke. A 2019 meta-analysis revealed that egg consumption has no significant effect on serum biomarkers of inflammation. A 2021 review of clinical trials found that egg consumption has beneficial effects on macular pigment optical density and serum lutein.
One of the most common food allergies in infants is eggs. Infants usually have the opportunity to grow out of this allergy during childhood, if exposure is minimized. Allergic reactions against egg white are more common than reactions against egg yolks. In addition to true allergic reactions, some people experience a food intolerance to egg whites.
Food labeling practices in most developed countries now include eggs, egg products, and the processing of foods on equipment that also process foods containing eggs in a special allergen alert section of the ingredients on the labels.
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Egged On”. The Washington Post.
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