Healthy Eating: What Is the Healthiest Way to Cook and Eat Eggs?
Eggs can be labeled superfoods because of their amazing nutrient profile but what makes them even better is that they are very affordable. They comprise extraordinarily few energy, however they’re packed with proteins, nutrients, minerals, wholesome fats and numerous vitamins. That said, we must emphasize the importance of the manner you cook your eggs as it can have an effect on their nutrient profile.
In this article, we explore the healthiest approaches to consume eggs. Eggs are scrumptious and extraordinarily versatile as they can be cooked in numerous ways. Furthermore, they can be eaten as is or mixed with other food items, including veggies, to make healthy dishes.
Here are 7 different ways you can cook your eggs:
1. Boiled
Hard-boiled eggs are cooked in their shells in a pot of boiling water for 6–10 minutes, depending on how fully cooked you need the yolk to be.
2. Poached
Poached eggs are cooked in barely cooler water. They’re cracked right into a pot of simmering water among 160–180°F (71–82°C) and cooked for 2.five–three minutes.
3. Fried
Fried eggs are cracked right into a warm pan that includes a skinny layer of cooking fats. You can then prepare them “sunny side up,” this means that the egg is fried on one side, or “over smooth,” this means that the egg is fried on each side.
4. Baked
Although less popular than other methods on this list, baking eggs works just as well as any other. The eggs are cooked in a warm oven in a flat-bottomed dish till the egg is set.
5. Scrambled
Scrambled eggs are crushed in a bowl, poured right into a warm pan, and stirred over low warmness till they set.
6. Omelet
To make an omelet, eggs are crushed, poured right into a warm pan, and cooked slowly over low heat till they’re solid. Unlike scrambled eggs, an omelet isn’t stirred as soon as it’s withinside the pan.
7. Microwaved
Microwaves may be used to prepare eggs in lots of exclusive approaches. It takes a good deal much less time to prepare eggs in a microwave than it does on a stove. However, it’s commonly now no longer an amazing concept to microwave eggs which might be because of the internal pressure that builds up in their shells, causing explosions.
How To Determine Which Cooking Method Is Healthier For You
Cooking is essential as it kills harmful bacteria but there's also the slight worry that the cooking method you choose might impact the nutritional value of the eggs, rendering them unhealthy.
However, nutrition experts say that cooking is actually just as important to the nutritional profile of eggs.
Cooking makes a few vitamins extra digestible
Cooking eggs makes them more secure to consume, and it additionally makes a number of their nutrients much easier to digest. Studies have proven that egg proteins become better digestible when heated.
This is backed by a study that reports that the human body can utilise 91% of the protein in cooked eggs, in comparison to only obtaining 51% protein in uncooked eggs.
This difference in digestibility is due to the fact that heating causes structural adjustments within the egg proteins. In uncooked eggs, the huge protein compounds are different and curled up in complex, twisted structures. However, these are broken during cooking.
High heat cooking might harm different vitamins
Although cooking eggs makes a few vitamins extra digestible, it can destroy others. This isn't unusual. Cooking eggs can destroy few vitamins, especially if they're cooked at excessive temperatures for an extended length of time.
A study of this phenomenon in eggs showed that cooking eggs decreased their nutrition by around 17-20%.
Cooking may notably lessen the variety of antioxidants in eggs
Another study reports that some common cooking methods, consisting of microwaving, boiling, and frying eggs, decreased the variety of positive antioxidants through 6–18%.
On the other hand, methods that requires less cooking time (even at excessive temperatures) were proven to keep extra vitamins. Research has proven that after eggs are baked for forty minutes, they will lose as much as 61% in their nutrition D, in comparison to as much as 18% while they`re fried or boiled for a shorter length of time.
High-heat cooking oxidizes the LDL cholesterol in eggs
Last but not least, you must consider the fact that cooking methods that require high heat cause oxidation of LDL cholesterol in eggs to produce oxysterols.
You can cook eggs in various ways, most of which are largely safe to do. However, experts reiterate that shorter and lower-heat cooking methods cause less cholesterol oxidation and help retain most of the egg’s nutrients.
For this reason, poached and boiled (either hard or soft) eggs may be the healthiest to eat. These cooking methods also don’t add any unnecessary calories.
