We already know that it's not bad to eat eggs daily when following a balanced diet, but if you are someone who has eggs for breakfast every day, it may be interesting to know the best way to eat them to take advantage of all their benefits.
Eggs are a basic, simple, and very versatile ingredient in the kitchen, so there are countless ways to eat them, from boiled to fried, and they can also be combined with ingredients like vegetables.
Cooking eggs makes them safer to eat and some nutrients more digestible; for example, protein becomes more digestible when heated, and a study showed that the human body could utilize 91% of the protein if the eggs were cooked, but only 51% if they were raw. The hypothesis is that this change in digestibility is due to heat causing structural changes in the proteins of the egg.
A boiled egg is also better in terms of the availability of the micronutrient biotin, but while cooking eggs makes some nutrients more digestible, it can damage others.
This does not only happen with eggs, as the simple act of cooking most foods always leads to a reduction in some nutrients, especially if they are cooked at high temperatures for an extended period.
In general, shorter cooking times (even at high temperatures) retain more nutrients, and for example, science has shown that when eggs are baked for 40 minutes, they can lose up to 61% of their vitamin D, compared to up to 18% when fried or boiled for a shorter period.
However, even though cooking eggs reduces these nutrients, they remain a very rich source of vitamins and antioxidants. So to maximize their benefits when cooking them, make them healthier with these tips:
- Try to cook them using a low-calorie cooking method, such as poached or boiled eggs, as this avoids adding extra calories from fat.
- Prepare scrambled eggs with vegetables and use them to increase your vegetable intake, add fiber and additional vitamins to your meal, or simply cook the eggs the way you like and add vegetables.
- If you fry them, use an oil that is stable at high temperatures. For example, the best oils for high-heat cooking are those that remain stable at high temperatures and do not easily oxidize to form harmful free radicals, such as avocado oil or sunflower oil.
- Try to buy more nutritious eggs; for example, it is generally believed that organic eggs are nutritionally superior to those from caged hens produced conventionally.
- Do not overcook them, because the longer and hotter you prepare the eggs, the more nutrients they will lose. Additionally, using a higher temperature for a longer time can also increase the amount of oxidized cholesterol they contain, which is particularly true when frying in a pan.