What Is The Healthiest Way to Cook and Eat Eggs?

"Eggs are a cheap but incredibly nutritious food.
They contain relatively few calories, but they’re packed with proteins, vitamins, minerals, healthy fats and various trace nutrients.
That said, the way you prepare your eggs can affect their nutrient profile.

This article explores the healthiest ways to cook and eat eggs.

A Review of the Different Cooking Methods
Eggs are delicious and extremely versatile.
They can be cooked in many different ways and are easy to combine with other healthy foods, like vegetables.
Cooking them also destroys any dangerous bacteria, making them safer to eat.

Here’s a breakdown of the most popular cooking methods:

Boiled
Hard-boiled eggs are cooked in their shells in a pot of boiling water for 6–10 minutes, depending on how well cooked you want the yolk to be.
The longer you cook them, the firmer the yolk will become.

Poached
Poached eggs are cooked in slightly cooler water.
They are cracked into a pot of simmering water between 160–180°F (71–82°C) and cooked for 2.5–3 minutes.

Fried
Fried eggs are cracked into a hot pan that contains a thin layer of cooking fat.
You can then cook them “sunny side up,” which means the egg is fried on one side, or “over easy,” which means the egg is fried on both sides.

Baked
Baked eggs are cooked in a hot oven in a flat-bottomed dish until the egg is set.

Scrambled
Scrambled eggs are beaten in a bowl, poured into a hot pan and stirred over low heat until they set.

Omelet

To make an omelet, eggs are beaten, poured into a hot pan, and cooked slowly over low heat until they’re solid.
Unlike scrambled eggs, an omelet is not stirred once it’s in the pan.

Microwaved
Microwaves can be used to cook eggs in many different ways. It takes much less time to cook eggs in a microwave than it does on a stove.
However, it’s usually not a good idea to microwave eggs that are still inside their shells. This is because pressure can quickly build-up inside them, and they may explode.

Bottom Line: Eggs can be cooked in many different ways, including boiling, poaching, frying, baking and scrambling.

5 Tips to Cook Super Healthy Eggs

Eggs are nutritious, but you can make your eggs even healthier.

1. Choose a Low-Calorie Cooking Method
If you are trying to cut back on calories, choose poached or boiled eggs.
These cooking methods don’t add any extra fat calories, so the meal will be lower in calories than fried or scrambled eggs or an omelet.

2. Combine Them With Vegetables
Eggs go really well with vegetables.
This means that eating eggs is a great opportunity to boost your vegetable intake and add extra fiber and vitamins to your meal.
Some simple ideas include adding the vegetables of your choice into an omelet or scrambled eggs, like in this recipe.
Or simply cook the eggs whichever way you want and have vegetables on the side.

3. Fry Them in an Oil That’s Stable at High Temperatures
The best oils for cooking at high heat, like when pan frying, are those that remain stable at high temperatures and don’t oxidize easily to form harmful free radicals.
Examples of good choices include extra virgin olive oil and butter. Coconut oil is also a good choice for high-heat cooking, but some people may not like the taste with eggs.

4. Choose the Most Nutritious Eggs You Can Afford
The nutritional quality of eggs can be influenced by a number of factors, including the farming method and chicken’s diet.
In general, pasture-raised and organic eggs are thought to be nutritionally superior to caged and conventionally-produced eggs.
This article goes into detail about the nutritional differences between eggs produced by different methods.

5. Don’t Overcook Them
The longer and hotter you cook your eggs, the more nutrients you may lose.

Bottom Line: To make your eggs as healthy as possible, choose a low-calorie cooking method, combine them with vegetables, fry them in a heat-stable oil and don’t overcook them.

Take Home Message
Overall, shorter and lower-heat cooking methods cause less oxidation of cholesterol and help retain most of the nutrients in the eggs.
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.
All that being said, eating eggs is generally super healthy no matter which way you cook them.
So you may just want to cook and eat them in the way you enjoy the most and not obsess over the small details."

These words, and the whole full article with links, can be read on the Authority Nutrition site here

We bring a variety of articles and recipe ideas to this blog, and not all may be suitable for you. If you may have any food allergies, or underlying health issues these must always be taken into account. If you are a diabetic and not sure how certain foods may affect your blood sugars, test is best, i.e. use your meter. 

All the best Jan