Eggs

Category: Food

Type

Voluntary

Introduction and description

   

Eggs are laid by female animals of many different species, including birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish, and have been eaten by humans for thousands of years. In this section I will limit the description to the eggs of birds as they are most available, however, other sorts of eggs also provide valuable nutrients. “Popular choices for egg consumption are chicken, duck, and quail, but the egg most often consumed by humans is the chicken egg, by a wide margin”.

Egg yolks and whole eggs have significant amounts of protein and choline, as well as vitamins and minerals. But the nutrient content is almost entirely determined by how they are kept and what they are fed or are able to eat. A battery chicken produces a pale nutrient poor egg in comparison with a chicken allowed to roam and free to eat grass, weeds as well as possibly corn.

Mass production of chicken eggs is a global industry. In 2009, an estimated 62.1 million metric tons of eggs were produced worldwide from a total laying flock of approximately 6.4 billion hens – not all these birds are kindly reared or properly fed. We buy our eggs from Rachel, our next door neighbour, who keeps free range chickens in a field surrounded by a massively high fence to keep out the foxes. They sleep safely in a straw filled barn overnight.

Nutrients

The following table shows the nutrient content of eggs of various sizes.  The table is for a simple unadulterated whole egg with white and yolk and not from hens fed on exotic feed.  A true free range hen produces eggs with a lovely thick white and a deep yellow orange yolk.  A free range hen also produces eggs which taste nicer. There are minerals missing from the table below - extremely important minerals - which an egg has - sulphur being one of them, but the observations describe some of the extra nutrients.  

Source: US National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference
Release 26   Software v.1.3.1 Nutrient values and weights are for edible portion 

Nutrient	Unit	Value per 100 g	large 50g	extra large 56g	jumbo 63g	medium 44g	small 38g
Proximates
Water	g	76.15	38.08	42.64	47.97	33.51	28.94
Energy	kcal	143	72	80	90	63	54
Protein	g	12.56	6.28	7.03	7.91	5.53	4.77
Total lipid (fat)	g	9.51	4.76	5.33	5.99	4.18	3.61
Carbohydrate, by difference	g	0.72	0.36	0.40	0.45	0.32	0.27
Fiber, total dietary	g	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0
Sugars, total	g	0.37	0.18	0.21	0.23	0.16	0.14
Minerals							Minerals
Calcium, Ca	mg	56	28	31	35	25	21
Iron, Fe	mg	1.75	0.88	0.98	1.10	0.77	0.66
Magnesium, Mg	mg	12	6	7	8	5	5
Phosphorus, P	mg	198	99	111	125	87	75
Potassium, K	mg	138	69	77	87	61	52
Sodium, Na	mg	142	71	80	89	62	54
Zinc, Zn	mg	1.29	0.64	0.72	0.81	0.57	0.49
Vitamins							Vitamins
Vitamin C, total ascorbic acid	mg	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0
Thiamin	mg	0.040	0.020	0.022	0.025	0.018	0.015
Riboflavin	mg	0.457	0.228	0.256	0.288	0.201	0.174
Niacin	mg	0.075	0.038	0.042	0.047	0.033	0.028
Vitamin B-6	mg	0.170	0.085	0.095	0.107	0.075	0.065
Folate, DFE	µg	47	24	26	30	21	18
Vitamin B-12	µg	0.89	0.44	0.50	0.56	0.39	0.34
Vitamin A, RAE	µg	160	80	90	101	70	61
Vitamin A, IU	IU	540	270	302	340	238	205
Vitamin E (alpha-tocopherol)	mg	1.05	0.52	0.59	0.66	0.46	0.40
Vitamin D (D2 + D3)	µg	2.0	1.0	1.1	1.3	0.9	0.8
Vitamin D	IU	82	41	46	52	36	31
Vitamin K (phylloquinone)	µg	0.3	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.1	0.1
Lipids							Lipids
Fatty acids, total saturated	g	3.126	1.563	1.751	1.969	1.375	1.188
Fatty acids, total monounsaturated	g	3.658	1.829	2.048	2.305	1.610	1.390
Fatty acids, total polyunsaturated	g	1.911	0.956	1.070	1.204	0.841	0.726
Fatty acids, total trans	g	0.038	0.019	0.021	0.024	0.017	0.014
Cholesterol	mg	372	186	208	234	164	141

Method

Eggs must be one of the most versatile of all foods, they can be used in savoury and sweet dishes.

I just love them lightly boiled with Marmite on toast, but then that is just me.

How it works

see Observations

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