To get the maximum protein from your eggs without consuming added saturated fat, boil or poach them, or cook them in a small amount of healthy unsaturated fat, such as olive oil, rather than butter.
Cooking makes some nutrients more digestible
One example of this is the protein in eggs. Studies have shown it becomes more digestible when it's heated ( 3 ). In fact, one study found that the human body could use 91% of the protein in cooked eggs, compared to only 51% in raw eggs ( 4 ).
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.
Eggs are the richest source of proteins. On average, an egg can provide about 6-7 grams of protein. For an individual who practices a sedentary lifestyle, the daily protein requirement for a male would be about 56 grams and for a female would be about 46 grams. This would equate to consuming around 6-9 eggs per day.
No, 2 eggs do not contain enough protein for optimal muscle protein synthesis following a workout. According to the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, the optimal amount of high-quality protein for muscle protein synthesis post-workout is 20-30 grams [1].
Eggs are a quick, easy and delicious way to help meet our protein needs: two large eggs contain 13 grams of protein! Eggs are one of the few foods considered to be a complete high-quality protein source, because they contain all 9 essential amino acids.
Absolutely. Four eggs for breakfast or lunch provide you with a healthy source of fat and protein.
“To increase muscle mass, you need about 1.6 or 1.7 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight. That's about 155 grams of protein per day for a 200-pound man. If eating 4 meals per day, that would amount to about 39 grams of protein per meal, or about 11 egg whites.”
The heat coming from your stove denatures the protein by disrupting some of its bonds that held the molecule into shape. In the case of hard-boiled eggs, the proteins clump together and solidify, causing the egg white and yolk to harden.
Eat the whole egg!
Research shows whole eggs stimulate muscle growth and repair even more than just eating egg whites alone. Besides being packed with protein, the egg yolk contains important vitamins and minerals including vitamins A, D, B12, iron, folate and zinc.
The Benefits and Disadvantages of Eating Raw Eggs
But drinking or eating raw eggs offers no major advantages over eating poached or boiled eggs. Despite raw eggs containing slightly more nutrients, the nutrients in cooked eggs are in fact easier for your body to digest and absorb.
For example, an egg will have 6 grams of protein whether its boiled or prepared into an omelette. However, because making an omelette would require butter or oil, the calorie count increases.
A bodybuilder's diet must be much higher in protein than the average persons. Eggs contain about 6 grams of high quality protein, so high that it is used as the standard by which other foods are measured.
Eggs are a nutritious protein source and a staple in many people's diets. Though they're high in cholesterol, they also have many health-promoting qualities. For healthy adults, eating 1–2 eggs a day appears safe, as long as they're consumed as part of an overall nutritious diet.
Boiled eggs are more nutritious than other types of eggs because they are cooked without oil or butter, which adds additional calories and fat to the finished product. In comparison, one large fried egg contains 90 calories and 6.83 grams of fat, of which 2 grams are saturated.
Egg white protein and whey protein are at the top for absorption and have the best amino acid profiles. The graph below shows the difference in macronutrients for egg white and whey proteins. As you can see, whey protein provides, on average, 10 more calories per serving than egg white protein.
A common recommendation for gaining muscle is 1 gram of protein per pound (2.2 grams per kg) of body weight. Other scientists have estimated protein needs to be a minimum of 0.7 grams per pound (1.6 grams per kg) of body weight ( 13 ).
If you ate that for dinner and had even just one egg at some point in the day — maybe boiled as a snack, or fried on toast for breakfast — you'd be at 50 grams, as one egg had six grams of protein in it.
Like most fruits, bananas are not a source of fat or protein, just carbohydrates.
Egg whites are especially renowned for their high levels of protein, however yolk contains more on a gram for gram basis. Egg whites have 10.8g per 100g but are trumped by egg yolk which contains 16.4g per 100g. However, as there is more egg white volume than yolk in each egg, white grabs the protein spotlight.