Yes, Eggs are Good for You. Here’s Why! + Healthy Egg Recipes

Eggs are a nutrient-dense food and they are perfectly healthy to include in a balanced diet. In this post, learn about the health benefits of eggs, the nutrients that eggs provide, and tips for including eggs in a healthy diet, all from a Registered Dietitian. Plus, find over ten healthy egg recipes to make, including how to make perfect hard boiled eggs.

Read on to learn about why eggs are healthy, or click the links below to quickly navigate to different sections.

Table of contents

• Are eggs healthy?
• Eggs nutrition & health benefits
  • Eggs and cholesterol
• Best eggs to buy
  • Cage free vs free range vs pasture raised
• Healthy egg recipes

Are eggs healthy?

Throughout recent history, eggs have been labeled good, bad, and everything in between. As a Registered Dietitian, I am here to set the record straight about eggs! If you love to eat eggs and egg recipes, fear not, because eggs are actually good for you.

In fact, the FDA just released a new proposed definition of “healthy” food, and eggs meet this new criteria! No matter how you prepare eggs – boiled, fried, poached, or scrambled, they will provide the same valuable nutrients.

Are brown eggs healthier?

No, contrary to what you may have been told, brown eggs are equally as healthy as white eggs. The shell color of an egg has nothing to do with the healthfulness or nutrient composition, just the genetics of the chicken that laid the egg.

Are egg whites healthier?

Egg whites are comprised of mostly water and protein. All of the fat from an egg is in the yolk, therefore egg whites are fat-free, cholesterol-free, and lower in calories than whole eggs.

However, even though it contains fat and cholesterol, the egg yolk contains several beneficial micronutrients like choline, Vitamin A, B Vitamins, Vitamin D, and selenium. Removing the yolk will of course remove these nutrients! Therefore, whole eggs are overall more nutritious than egg whites.

See the comparison between egg white nutrition and whole egg nutrition in the table below:

	One Egg White	One Whole Large Egg
Calories	18	72
Fat	0 grams	5 grams
Protein	4 grams	6 grams
Cholesterol	0 mg	186 mg

Eggs nutrition and health benefits

Eggs are packed with nutrients! One large egg provides 72 calories, 0.6 grams of carbohydrate, 6 grams of protein, and 5 grams of fat.

In addition, eggs are a source of several micronutrients. One large egg provides:

• 0.229 mg riboflavin (18 percent of your daily needs)
• 0.45 mcg Vitamin B12 (19 percent of your daily needs)
• 23.5 mcg folate (6 percent of your daily needs)
• 1.00 mcg Vitamin D (5 percent of your daily needs)
• 146.9 mg choline (27 percent of your daily needs)
• 15.35 mcg selenium (28 percent of your daily needs)

While eggs do contain saturated fat, they also have both monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fatty acids. These healthy types of fat are linked to heart health benefits, because they can help lower “bad” LDL cholesterol levels.

Eggs are an excellent vegetarian protein source to eat if you follow a plant-based diet. They provide both Vitamin B12 and Vitamin D, both nutrients which are found more abundantly in animal foods than plant foods.

Best eggs to buy

Take a walk past the egg section in the supermarket, and you will see several designations and labels – certified organic, cage free, free range, pasture-raised, etc. These terms refer to the treatment of the chickens who laid the eggs: what they were fed and the conditions in which they were raised. For example, certified organic eggs came from chickens who were fed a certified organic diet.

Cage free vs free range vs pasture-raised eggs

• Cage free means the hens who laid the eggs are raised in hen houses, so they are not caged up individually. However, these facilities are often packed with hens, and while the are able to move around freely, it is crowded with little space to do so. Hens are not likely to have any access to the outdoors in cage free facilities.
• Free range eggs indicate that the hens laying the eggs are granted some access to the outdoors, but it does not specify the amount of time, quality, and quantity of the outdoor space.
• Pasture-raised eggs come from hens who are given at least 108 feet of space each to roam each day, and are able to feed on grass, bugs, and anything they can forage themselves in addition to chicken feed. There is some research to show that pasture-raised eggs may contain higher levels of Vitamin E and omega-3 fatty acids when compared to eggs from caged hens. Unfortunately, pasture-raised eggs tend to cost a few dollars more than other types of eggs.

If you are able to spend a few extra dollars, I recommend buying pasture-raised eggs at the supermarket when you can. Besides the potential nutrition benefits, they are the best eggs to buy from an animal welfare standpoint, too.

Healthy egg recipes

Find more than ten healthy recipes to make with eggs, below!

Let me know if you love this post by leaving a comment or star rating below, and check out Instagram and Pinterest for more healthy lifestyle inspiration. Thanks for stopping by!

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