Are Eggs Good for your Workout Diet?

By: Jim Scott

For years now, eggs are good one week and bad the next. I’ve seen this roller coaster opinion on the benefits and the evil of eggs for most of my life. One day a brilliant scientific study says don’t eat eggs, they’re bad for you. The next day an equally brilliant scientific study says eggs are the greatest thing that ever happened. here’s what my opinion is, based on facts only.

common workout wisdom says to eat only egg whites. That should be an individual decision based on your specific diet. You see, the reason for consuming only the egg white, is that 99% of the fat in eggs is contained in the yolk. This is where the egg become the villian. Fat is bad, yolks are almost all fat, so yolks must be all bad. Well, like most things, that’s not 100% true. Egg whites have no vitamin A, vitamin D, vitamin E, vitamin K and only a small percentage of many other vitamins and nutrients. the table below give a complete breakdown of the contents of both the yolk and the egg whites.

Personally, I do eat the yolks. But I don’t eat eggs every day. I usually eat eggs for breakfast on Saturday and Sunday morning, so my overall egg intake is relatively low. On the other hand, if you eat eggs everyday, then you might want to consider the total consumption of fat in your diet from eggs.
the following is true according to the Executive Summary of the Third Report on Nutrition Monitoring in the United States by the Interagency Board for Nutrition Monitoring and Related Research of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology’s Life Sciences Research Office.
* Most groups have a deficient median intake of magnesium.
* Several groups have a deficient median intake of calcium.
* Children aged 1-2 and most groups of females have a deficient median intake of iron.
* Blacks over the age of 16 and Mexican-Americans over the age of 60 have a deficient median intake of folate.
* All age groups and races have a deficient median intake of vitamins A, E, B6, and copper.

Considering this information, the importance of the egg yolk and relative unimportance of the egg white becomes even more clear. The yolk contains the majority of the copper, nearly all of the calcium, iron, folate, and B6, and 100% of the vitamins A and E.  The white, on the other hand, is only useful as an added source of magnesium, or if the diet is on the whole deficient in protein. The simple addition of a lean protein source such as chicken in the diet would provide for both.

Finally, eggs are an excellent source of carotenoids. These are primarily highly absorbable forms of lutein and its partner zeaxanthin. These carotenoids accumulate in the back of the eye and appear to protect against age-related macular degeneration. There is no RDA for them, as researchers are still trying to understand their importance. All of the lutein and zeaxanthin in an egg is contained in the yolk.

Nutrient	White	Yolk	% Total in White	% Total in Yolk
Protein	3.6 g	2.7g	57%	43%
Fat	0.05g	4.5g	1%	99%
Calcium	2.3 mg	21.9 mg	9.5%	90.5%
Magnesium	3.6 mg	0.85 mg	80.8%	19.2%
Iron	0.03 mg	0.4 mg	6.2%	93.8%
Phosphorus	5 mg	66.3 mg	7%	93%
Potassium	53.8 mg	18.5 mg	74.4%	25.6%
Sodium	54.8 mg	8.2 mg	87%	13%
Zinc	0.01 mg	0.4 mg	0.2%	99.8%
Copper	0.008 mg	0.013 mg	38%	62%
Manganese	0.004 mg	0.009 mg	30.8%	69.2%
Selenium	6.6 mcg	9.5 mcg	41%	59%
Thiamin	0.01 mg	0.03 mg	3.2%	96.8%
Riboflavin	0.145 mg	0.09 mg	61.7%	48.3%
Niacin	0.035 mg	0.004 mg	89.7%	9.3%
Pantothenic acid.	0.63 mg	0.51 mg	11%	89%
B6	0.002 mg	0.059 mg	3.3%	96.7%
Folate	1.3 mcg	24.8 mcg	5%	95%
B12	0.03 mcg	0.331 mcg	8.3%	91.7%
Vitamin A	0 IU	245 IU	0%	100%
Vitamin E	0 mg	0.684 mg	0%	100%
Vitamin D	0 IU	18.3 IU	0%	100%
Vitamin K	0 IU	0.119 IU	0%	100%
DHA and AA	0	94 mg	0%	100%
Carotenoids	0 mcg	21 mcg	0%	100%

Eggs or egg yolks do not cause heart disease

Concerned about the cholesterol in egg yolks? Worried about protecting your heart health? Egg yolks have long been maligned because of their cholesterol content, but cholesterol itself does not cause heart disease. In fact, while LDL, a major carrier of cholesterol in the blood, does have a role in heart disease, it is when poor metablism, deficient diets, and toxins destroy the LDL particle that heart disease develops.

the University of Connecticut has extensively studied the effects of eggs on cholesterol levels. These high-quality controlled studies have shown that when people consume three to four eggs per day, with the yolk, virtually everyone experiences either no change or beneficial changes in their cholesterol levels. Dr. Maria-Luz Fernandez has reviewed those studies here.