The Benefits Of Drinking Raw Eggs (And Other Egg Stuff)
Raw sex.
Raw fish.
Eddie Murphy’s 1987 comedy special.
The classic TV series Rawhide.
Training without a lifting belt, gloves, or other assistance gear.
There are some things that are just better raw.
But what about eggs?
Like, should you chug down baby chicken goop?
After all, Rocky Balboa followed a training regimen that included cracking and drinking five eggs immediately upon waking. And what happened to him? Yup, he became a boxing god! I don’t care what anybody says, but that’s clearly one of the benefits of drinking raw eggs. But are there others?
And if drinking raw eggs is advantageous, how safe can it possibly be?
Well, let’s crack the case…1That pun was abso-fucking-lutely intended!
Eggs are good for us, especially for a number of reasons that include:
VITAMINS
There are 13 total vitamins. Except for vitamin C, all of them can be found in eggs to help carry out a range of functions in support of overall health.2For example, vitamin D is necessary for the absorption of calcium, the mineral responsible for healthy teeth and bones. Eggs provide 100 percent of the recommended daily intake of this key nutrient, most of which can be found in greater proportion in the egg yolk than the whites, as is also the case with choline, a compound involved in cell structure and signaling, fat transport and metabolism, and DNA synthesis. Additionally, the nutrient plays a role in several brain and nervous system functions that include cognition, mood, memory, and muscle control.
In short, the yolk contains more, if not all, of the vitamins, including A, E, K, and six of the eight B-complex vitamins (niacin [B2] and riboflavin [B3] are the two exceptions).
MINERALS
As equally important for human health as vitamins are, a number of minerals are also found in large supply in eggs.3One of these minerals is selenium, a nutrient needed by the body to produce selenoproteins, or compounds that prevent cell damage. Selenium is also critical to thyroid function and immune system health. As you see, you shouldn’t confuse selenium with the software of the same name, which you were naturally thinking of! Anyway, more than 20% of this nutrient’s daily recommended intake is provided by eggs, with most of the content concentrated in the yolk, where other essential minerals like calcium, iron, phosphorus, and zinc are also in high amounts.
ANTIOXIDANTS
Antioxidants protect the cells from damage caused by free radicals, or molecules made unstable when the body processes food and reacts to such things as pollution, cigarette smoke, and UV radiation. Eggs contain a number of vitamins and minerals with antioxidant properties.4Vitamins A and E and the mineral selenium are antioxidants. So too is lutein and zeaxanthin, two plant pigments that are both found exclusively in the yolk and are thought to help reduce the risk of cataracts and macular degeneration in the eyes.
PROTEIN
There are 21 amino acids the body uses to build protein, nine of which the body can’t make and has to obtain from food. Eggs contain all nine of these essential amino acids and in the right ratios for the body to make full use of them for the growth, repair, and maintenance of cells and tissues, like muscle. For this reason, eggs are commonly referred to as a complete protein source. This in addition to their easy digestibility and high absorption rate make them the gold standard by which all other protein sources are graded.5The whites contain about 57 percent of an egg’s protein. The remaining 43 percent is in the yolk. Although the difference between the two isn’t great enough to be that significant, the white having a smidgen more protein further solidifies your belief in white supremacy and colored inferiority, all as you conveniently ignore that the yolk bests the white in everything else, as the yolk is the location where nearly all of the vitamins and minerals are.
HEALTH
Too much saturated fat can raise cholesterol and heart risks. However, egg yolks, where all of the fat is found, improve cholesterol profile and help reduce the risk of heart disease by increasing “good” HDL cholesterol levels and changing the particle size of “bad” LDL cholesterol from small to large.6Of additional note, the saturated fat and cholesterol within the yolk act as a precursor for the muscle-building hormone testosterone, which may or may not be overrated.
WEIGHT CONTROL
Studies have found that those who consume eggs for breakfast or lunch eat less between feedings, as well as fewer calories during later meals.7By my estimation, eating less food results in a reduction in total calories, which, to me, is the secret to weight loss. Anyway, eggs help with this because they’re high in leucine, an amino acid that influences several hormones responsible for hunger and fullness, some of which include insulin, ghrelin, and glucagon.
As we see, by throwing away the yolk out of mistaken fear of it clogging your arteries, you’re not only throwing away almost half of the egg’s 6 grams of muscle-building protein but you’re missing out on vital nutrients.
That’s why if you’re consuming eggs, you should be consuming the whole egg rather than preserving the white like some dairyland Hitler.
With the benefits of eggs out of the way, one of the biggest reasons given for drinking raw eggs has to do with protein, with it believed that cooking eggs denatures it. Being the case, according to belief, you should absorb more protein by way of consuming them in a raw state.
It sounds plausible, right?
Unfortunately, this line of thinking doesn’t hold up to scientific scrutiny.
It turns out that cooked and raw eggs have the same identical protein content. So there isn’t a difference between the two. Both raw and cooked eggs contain the same amount of protein, but the similarities end there.
Studies have shown that upwards of 90 percent of egg protein gets absorbed when cooked versus just around 50 percent of the protein getting digested when coming from a raw egg. Remember the talk of denaturation? Well, this has very much to do with it, but apparently not in the way once thought. Rather, cooking eggs breaks down the albumin, which is the white part of the egg and consists of molecules bonding the protein together that are too large for the body to break down on its own.
What this means is that if you follow Rocky’s lead of drinking five eggs with hopes of consuming 30 grams of protein, you’d actually only be absorbing half of your intended amount.
If consuming raw eggs results in reduced protein absorption, then why would anyone drink raw eggs if they didn’t have to?
After all, raw eggs are gross.
EWWWWW!
YUCKY!!
BARF!!!
Concerning the ick factor, let’s not pretend to be saints here, as if your mouth and gut haven’t housed more biological specimens than a Petri dish.
*ahem*
While it appears that there’s no advantage from a macronutrient perspective, the convenience factor is the reason for consuming raw eggs.
For people on the go or who have difficulty getting all their necessary calories in the form of solid food, it’s less of an effort to drink eggs than it is to actually spend time masticating them.8Mastication is the act of chewing, folks!!!
But what about the macros?!?!
Concerning the bioavailability of raw eggs being inferior to cooked eggs, it would most likely behoove an individual to stick with cooked eggs if they had a protein deficiency in their diet.
What about anyone else?
Oh, you mean like you, for example?
Well, if you’re like most hardcore gym-goers who tend to consume far more protein than they probably even need — maybe double or triple their requirement because they think more protein magically equals more muscle — drinking raw eggs won’t really matter because you’ll make up for the protein shortfall from the raw eggs via the abundance of protein from other protein-rich foods.
The benefits of drinking raw eggs aren’t much, as raw eggs provide no extra nutritional value. In fact, drinking raw eggs may be a hindrance if you’re not carefully tracking your macros. On the other hand, if you’re pressed for time or can’t find the energy to work your jaw muscles, drinking raw eggs may be the way to go.
All that leaves us with is the matter of safety.
Concerning that, don’t you fret!
The risks aren’t what they’re cracked up to be.9Once again, that pun was abso-fucking-lutely intended!
Using myself as an example, I used to dump two eggs into my morning and afternoon protein shake when I was just starting out.
That’s about four raw eggs a day for probably well over a decade. Never once do I recall getting “salami,” as one poster so eloquently put it on a message board I frequent.
Why?
Because I wasn’t a fucking young child, senior citizen, or person with a weakened immune system — i.e. the people who are most at risk for salmonella infection, according to the motherfucking CDC!
With that said, if you need to sneak in some extra calories and protein into your diet, raw eggs are a great alternative…
…that is if you’re not a scaredy cat who fears salmonella, with your odds of getting a foodborne illness probably being less than you driving in your car and dying on the highway in a fiery wreck because your pervert ass became distracted watching the porno that the pervert in the lane across from you was playing in their car’s entertainment system.
Glossary: calories, diet, gym-goer, hormones, lifting belt, lifting gloves, metabolism, muscle
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