Andrew Graham Posted December 15, 2012 Share Posted December 15, 2012 Hi guys There's alot of discussion in my 'nutrition and performance' class whether or not eating raw eggs is bad for you. Theories that side with good are: more nutritional content in eggs when raw, alot of nutrition is lost when cooked. And theories that side with bad are: SALMONELA poisoning and badly developed or damaged eggs. So what do you guys think? Was Rocky really doing the right thing?? Cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joshua Slocum Posted December 15, 2012 Share Posted December 15, 2012 From a purely strength-oriented perspective, eat them cooked. Cooked eggs allow for higher protein absorption: http://jn.nutrition.org/content/128/10/1716.full So Rocky was in fact doing the wrong thing. To my knowledge, there's no scientific evidence suggesting that cooking causes significant breakdown or decrease in bioavailability of the fats or micronutrients in eggs. So even from a general health perspective, I don't think there's any good reason to prefer eggs raw. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ping Blekkboks Posted December 15, 2012 Share Posted December 15, 2012 Don't know about the nutritional side, but the salmonella risk is way overhyped. Along with the other common nutrition dogmas. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikke Olsen Posted December 15, 2012 Share Posted December 15, 2012 As far as salmonella goes, if you eat soft-boiled eggs, the risk with raw egg is no bigger.As long as you don't heat - without heating so much you kill the salmonella - then cool, it's usually not an issue, and especially not with single eggs. The problem usually is with some cooking (cakes etc.) where you heat the egg (and often more than just one) without heating through, then cool it, usually mixed with sugar, which makes for the optimal environment for bacteria. That's often the case in Denmark, at least. One egg makes all of them go bad, obviously. Also, the Japanese eat raw eggs daily, and neither of them fear it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Larry Roseman Posted December 15, 2012 Share Posted December 15, 2012 Both are good but cooked is better nutritionally for reason referred to above. Do you really like the taste and texture of raw eggs? Plus the chance of contamination though small is greaterso why risk it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Razz Posted December 16, 2012 Share Posted December 16, 2012 Well there is always the issue of oxidizing the cholesterol with cooking aswell as removing the glutamyl-cysteine bonds which can help with glutathione production. Of course this is generally not something to worry about if your diet is great already. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Larry Roseman Posted December 16, 2012 Share Posted December 16, 2012 Well there is always the issue of oxidizing the cholesterol with cooking aswell as removing the glutamyl-cysteine bonds which can help with glutathione production. Of course this is generally not something to worry about if your diet is great already. We really get into some eggsoteric discussions on this board! Both of those I believe are generic cooking issues, not specific to eggs only. Oxidation of CR can occur spontaneously both outside and inside the body, so it's rather impossible to prevent. Cooking inside the egg, soft or hard boiling, will minimize it to a degree. Like with most fats, it can occur. In regards to the peptide bonds, there is a good chance they will be broken during digestion anyway. In any event the body will form glutathione using enzymes and the building blocks provided my a basic DRI/RDA type of diet. You're unlikely to be deficient in it without a major illness or genetic abnormality. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Razz Posted December 16, 2012 Share Posted December 16, 2012 The bonds don't break during digestion - it's the same bonds as whey protein has, which is why whey protein is so effective at raising glutathione levels. Though, as we seem to agree on, not something most people should worry about. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
txtumbler Posted December 16, 2012 Share Posted December 16, 2012 Another bad thing about raw eggs I haven't seen mentioned yet is that raw eggs contain a protien, Avidin, which strongly binds to the co-enzyme Biotin. Avidin has one of the strongest dissociation constants for non-ionic bonds known, at Kd = 10^-15 M, so it will very tightly bind up all available biotin, rendering you biotin deficient. Two more more raw eggs daily for a few months is enough to cause biotin defiency. This is bad since biotin is a crucial co-enzyme for the Krebbs cycles, as well as the metabolism of some fatty acids and amino acids. Fortunately, Avidin is denatured when cooked, so cooked eggs posed no problem. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Larry Roseman Posted December 17, 2012 Share Posted December 17, 2012 You're right. I thought that would have been mentioned in the linked article but it wasn't. Of course, a simple solution to all the mentioned problems is to eat pasteurized eggs. Usually whites are in the box, but whole eggs can be pasteurized at home without fully cooking them,leaving them in warm water for about 3-4 minutes @ 140 degrees. http://www.howtobaker.com/techniques/baking/how-to-pasteurize-eggs/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joshua Naterman Posted December 17, 2012 Share Posted December 17, 2012 Well, everyone has covered everything i would have covered, and then some (txtumbler's explanation of involvement of biotin with krebs cycle) so nice job! If you want to be a badass and eat raw eggs, you should scrub the outside of the shell extremely well or buy steam-pasteurized shell eggs. Salmonella is on the shell, not in the egg itself. However, in this case there is absolutely zero advantage to eating raw (as is actually true in a surprising number of cases), because you absorb 50% less protein in the raw state, as well as the Avidin issue. Just eat your cooked eggs with a lot of veggies and preferably greens, just like you should be doing anyways, and you won't need to worry about the oxidation "issues". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew Graham Posted December 18, 2012 Author Share Posted December 18, 2012 excellent stuff guys!....i'm reading it all and now i have to find a reference for my assignments on all this input!....you guys rock! I wasw reading up on another forum how some people are switching to eating RAW meat!?....i mean obviously beef steak and sushi grade fish can be done but...surely you can't eat chicken, wild fish etc raw!???? My diet is consists of mostly chicken and fish but i do like my steak once a week (rare of course ). Along with that is alot of brown rice (real brown rice not brown covered white rice!) and the rest is organic. fruits and vegie's! What do you guys think about the raw meat vs cooked meat?? I saw a guy called Aajonus Vonderplanitz who eats not only raw food, but ROTTEN RAW MEAT! don't think i'll be trying that one out myself personally cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikke Olsen Posted December 18, 2012 Share Posted December 18, 2012 I really hate to correct you, Joshua, but I'm pretty certain salmonella is also to be found in the yolk (if one is unlucky). Some of the only ways I love raw eggs is with sukiyaki and nama tamago nattou. Reminds me I need to make some more nattou... I cannot wait to go back to Japan! K2 my way! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rik de Kort Posted December 18, 2012 Share Posted December 18, 2012 I really hate to correct you, JoshuaWhy? Since when did teaching someone something become a bad thing? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joshua Naterman Posted December 18, 2012 Share Posted December 18, 2012 I really hate to correct you, Joshua, but I'm pretty certain salmonella is also to be found in the yolk (if one is unlucky). Some of the only ways I love raw eggs is with sukiyaki and nama tamago nattou. Reminds me I need to make some more nattou... I cannot wait to go back to Japan! K2 my way! Always good to correct! I haven't heard of salmonella getting in there if the shell is clean, but after looking around you are right! It can apparently be in the white or yolk as well. That pretty much settles it for me, eat cooked eggs. Oh man.. the Sukiyaki set at Restaurant Gyuemon was my #1 favorite thing to eat of all time!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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