Eggs – Catholic Carnivore

Last update: 5 May 2020

This page is about eggs, particularly domestic chicken eggs that we eat.

Nutritional value

An egg is essentially the whole bird in a shell (albeit with some assembly required), thereby providing the ultimate nose-to-tail eating². The only essential nutrient for humans that is absent from eggs is vitamin C¹. You could do a lot worse than eating only eggs and an ascorbic acid supplement every now and then. In fact, given the palatability reduction⁵ and satiety factor⁴ of whole eggs, most people would probably do a lot better – they’d lose weight and improve their metabolic health – for much the same reasons as why the “potato hack”³ works.

Concerns

Eggs aren’t completely safe for everyone. Much like with dairy, frequent consumption of eggs does not have a very long evolutionary history⁷ in the human species, and a small minority are allergic⁶ and should not consume them.

The relationship between egg consumption and cardiovascular disease is, at best, highly unclear⁸. Beyond raising both HDL and LDL slightly, it seems to have no effect⁹. What I find the most concerning about eggs is their level of n-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids, which is probably only substantially modifiable by improving the nutrition of the chickens that lay them¹⁰.

Some measure of caution is advised concerning raw eggs. Eggs contain a protein called avidin, which binds to the vitamin biotin. Prolonged (over 1 year) consumption of at least six raw eggs per day can cause biotin deficiency, at least in cirrhotic individuals¹¹. Asymptomatic, mild deficiency in the context of a low-biotin diet (notably – without egg yolks) is inducable in a month of heavy raw egg white consumption¹². Cooking eggs inactivates avidin, albeit in an incomplete manner unless the cooking is very thorough¹⁴. In addition, raw egg proteins are harder to digest than cooked¹³, likely due to the protease inhibitors they contain¹⁵. All that said, if you don’t don’t guzzle half a dozen raw eggs every day for months on end, while having liver damage, you’ll probably be fine.

Nutritional value

Concerns

References