For example, "try cooking eggs with a cooking spray, which preps your pan for cooking eggs with almost zero fat and calories," recommends Basbaum. Or opt for healthier fats than butter or bacon grease. "Cooking eggs with minimal fat or using unsaturated fats like olive oil or avocado oil are healthier alternatives.
Lots of fried egg stans say butter is best. Thanks to its high concentration of fat, butter has a unique taste and creamy texture. It's great for high heat pan-frying and can prevent your eggs from sticking to the pan.
Poached Eggs
Based on the goals of getting the most nutrients out of your eggs with the least risk of oxidizing cholesterol, poaching is the number one healthiest way to cook and eat eggs.
Cooking eggs with olive oil is considered to be a healthier opinion when compared with butter (via Live Strong). The Olive Oil Source details exactly what kinds of benefits different olive oils have. Extra virgin seems to be the best for fried eggs because it has the highest smoke point.
Both of these fats have health risks. Some guidelines for healthier cooking: Use olive or canola oil instead of butter or margarine. Choose soft margarine (tub or liquid) over harder stick forms.
In short, butter beats vegetable oil because butter is a “whole, fresh food” and vegetable oil is not, says Ken Immer, president and chief culinary officer of Culinary Health Solutions. However, he points out that butter contains heart-unhealthy “bad” cholesterol, while vegetable oil does not.
Butter contains 11g fat per tablespoon, 7g of which are saturated fats. Remember, the recommended daily upper limit in an 8700kJ day is just 24g saturated fat. Canola oil contains more fat, but only 1g saturated fat per tablespoon. Instead, canola oil has mainly monounsaturated fats which are good for heart health.
Canola oil or a light olive oil are both great for all foods, not just eggs. The canola oil will be flavorless while the olive oil will have a hint of fresh olives. Ghee or clarified butter is the healthiest.
For sunny-side up eggs, start with a nonstick skillet heated over medium. Swirl in a little butter. Olive oil or bacon drippings will work great, too. Add each egg slowly, so the white starts to cook just a little bit before the yolk hits the pan – this will give you neatly defined fried eggs with centered yolks.
Cooking eggs with olive oil is considered a healthy alternative to butter. Olive oil contains monounsaturated fat that may help lower total cholesterol, benefit insulin levels, normalize blood clotting and lower your risk of heart disease.
Why the unhealthiest way to cook eggs is to fry them at high heat. Although frying eggs is one of the most popular methods of preparing eggs, it's not necessarily the healthiest method you can choose. That's because oil is high in calories and saturated fats. And butter is one of the worst offenders.
Excessive cooking at high heats can deplete eggs of their antioxidants. Antioxidants are healthy nutrients that protect your body from those harmful free radicals. One study found that boiling, frying, or microwaving can reduce the antioxidant content in eggs.
The American Heart Association recommends up to one egg a day for most people, fewer for people with high blood cholesterol, especially those with diabetes or who are at risk for heart failure, and up to two eggs a day for older people with normal cholesterol levels and who eat a healthy diet.
For the least amount of fat, try using a non-stick pan and a spray-oil. Fortunately eggs do not absorb as much fat as some other foods when fried. You can also remove some of the fat by draining them from the pan with a spatula and blotting them on kitchen paper to absorb excess fat.
In a nutshell, butter is much higher in saturated fats than olive oil, made of 63% saturated fat as compared to approximately 14% for olive oil. As olive oil is also high in vitamins E and K, beneficial fatty acids, and antioxidants that help reduce inflammation, olive oil is considered to be healthier than butter.
As eggs cook, the proteins in the whites form tight, cross-linked bonds that turn their texture dense and rubbery. Adding butter to the mix coats the proteins with fat, inhibiting them from forming bonds so the eggs stay soft and creamy.
Oil Is Best For Frying An Egg In A Cast-Iron Skillet
On medium-low heat, heat around 1/8-inch of oil in the cast-iron skillet for about 1 to 2 minutes, until hot and shimmering. In the meantime, crack an egg into a small bowl. What is this? Once the oil is hot, gently slide the egg into the hot oil.
Use Low Heat for Frying Eggs
Low heat will gently and evenly cook eggs to perfection. If the pan is too hot, then the bottom cooks quickly while the top remains runny and raw.
Typically, you fry eggs in canola or vegetable oil: fats with neutral flavor and a high smoke point, meaning you can cook the egg at medium-high heat and not worry about the oil smoking and giving the egg off flavors.
You can sub butter with olive oil, coconut oil, vegetable oil, bacon fat… If you want to stay away from fats all together, try poaching the egg in boiling water.
Why Fry your eggs with olive oil? We've heard the rumors, and you probably have too, but they aren't true! You can, indeed, fry with extra virgin olive oil and actually should. The smoke point isn't too low and heating the oil won't turn it "bad".
Scientists around the world simultaneously showed that saturated fat—the kind in butter and lard—increases both “bad” LDL cholesterol and “good” HDL cholesterol, making it similar to carbohydrates overall but not as beneficial to health as polyunsaturated fats from nuts and vegetables.
Butter contains more minerals and is richer in vitamins B12 and A. butter is higher in saturated fats; however, it has a shorter shelf life. On the other hand, Vegetable oil is higher in fats and unsaturated fats and is richer in vitamins K and E.
Olive oil has a lower smoke point-the point at which an oil literally begins to smoke (olive oil's is between 365° and 420°F)-than some other oils. When you heat olive oil to its smoke point, the beneficial compounds in oil start to degrade, and potentially health-harming compounds form.