Egg-u-cation

For those of you looking to increase your protein intake, eggs are a great source. You just need to be smart when making eggs. Let start by looking a the nutritional information for one whole egg.

Egg – Yolk & White
Calories: 77
5g Fat / 0.6g Carbs / 6.3g Protein / Cholesterol 210mg

Note that the cholesterol in one egg is 210mg, this is two-thirds of the 300mg daily limit recommended by the American Heart Association. Now how many of us eat just one egg for breakfast? Typically I eat 2-3 eggs. This would put me way over the recommend limit for cholesterol as well as give me a total of 231 calories, with 15 grams of fat, but 18.9 grams of protein which is great and only 1.8 grams of carbs. Now this is 230 calories without any side dishes such as cottage cheese, fruit or veggies.

The smarter choice would be to use just eggs whites. Take a look atthe nutritional information for one whole egg, whites only.

Egg – White Only
Calories: 17
0g Fat / 0.3g Carbs / 3.5g Protein / 0mg Cholesterol

As you can see, all of the fat and cholesterol of an egg is contained in the yolk, and more than half of the protein is in the white. In this case we could eat 4 egg whites for a total of 68 calories with 0 grams of fat, 14 grams of protein, 0 grams of cholesterol and only 1.2 grams of carbs. The only down side I see to using just egg white is that majority of the vitamins are also contained in the yolk, but you should be getting plenty of these from the vegtables and fruit you are eating.

Now some people may not like eating just egg whites, so you could use a combination of the two. Try two egg whites and one whole egg. This would give you a total of 111 calories, with 5 grams of fat, 13 grams of protein, only 1.2 grams of carbs, but you do still get 210 grams of cholesterol.

So next time you make breakfast make sure to remember this egg-u-cational tip.