We won’t deny it, nothing start our days better than eggs. We love eggs so much we even have an article dedicated to eggs, which you can learn more from clicking link below. There are plenty of reasons why, but mostly because there are just so many ways to prepare eggs, ranging from boiling, whisking them into omelettes, or just frying them for the good old sunny-side-up. Indeed, eggs are awesome.
It’s almost no secret that awesome things are controversial sometimes, the same goes for eggs. Many debates have been sparked as to decide whether it is okay to consume more than 7 eggs a week, or are egg yolks really bad for heart. Of course, all the confusions can be solved by simply separating the egg whites from the yolks, thus eliminating the cholesterol and LDL frights completely.
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The Nutrition in Egg Whites
Everyone and their mothers have probably known that eggs are one of the best source of protein, but not only that, they also contain some vitamins and minerals, as well as calories. There are also other macronutrients such as choline, lutein and zeaxanthin. Those macronutrients have their own respective benefits, which we will discuss shortly after this.
What’s so great about eating egg whites is, when we opted for egg whites, we automatically reduced the cholesterol and saturated fat greatly, this can be put in other words “taking only the good, leave the bad out”. So, knowing that, we can safely conclude that egg whites are both essentials and safe to consume for our daily meal to maintain and even enhance our overall body health. Indeed, there are many health benefits of eating egg whites.
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1. Provide Nutrients for Nerve and Brain Function
Egg whites contain choline, which is a macronutrient that’s mostly present in the form of phosphatidycholine, some kind of compound which is also one of the elements of fat. That means, choline can be found in wide variety of foods that contain fats, be it animal-based or plant-based fat. Choline’s main function is to help in methylation process, which is heavily involved in DNA creations, signalling of the nerves, and can also help in detoxification.
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2. Help in Anti-Aging Process
More on the nerves, in our brain there is an important neurotransmitter known as “acetylcholine”, whose role consists of helping nerves to communicate and muscles to move, performs basic processes, and can also act as anti-aging neurotransmitter. There are pretty handful of researches which can be consulted to fully understand how this neurotransmitter works. The point is, acetylcholine helps in diminishing cross-linking of proteins, which leads to tearing of muscle tissues, one of the cause of aging.
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3. Contain Vitamins
When it comes to vitamins and minerals, to be fair, whole eggs beats egg whites hands down. As we have discussed in our particular article about eggs, whole eggs contain iron, phosphorus, folate and vitamins A, B-12 and D. Luckily for us, egg whites still contain full amount of riboflavin, which is about 0.4 milligrams, the same amount that’s contained in whole eggs.
Riboflavin, also known as vitamin B2, is necessary for preventing certain conditions such as eye cataracts, hyperhomocysteinemia, and migrain headaches. Hyperhomocysteinemia, just like its intimidatingly long name, is an equally dreadful condition.
Hyperhomocysteinemia is basically a medical condition where homocysteine in the blood considered abnormally high. This elevated levels of homocysteine might cause diseases such as heart attack, neuropsychiatric illness such as mild cognitive impairment, dementia, and schizophrenia, and bone-related diseases mainly caused by fractures.
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4. No Cholesterol
One thing about egg whites that blow whole eggs out of the water is that egg whites contain literally zero cholesterol. Each whole large egg is said to contain 186 milligrams of cholesterol, while a 100-gram serving of whole eggs contains 372 milligrams.
Additionally, most of the proteins contained in whole eggs lie in the egg whites, so, all the more advantages there are for consuming egg whites! It has also been widely known that high-quality protein helps build muscles, promoting fullness after meals while providing the much needed energy for the days. What might not be publicly known is that high quality proteins can slow down insulin responses, which in turn resulting in lower energy requirement in the next meal, that means, less craving and more energy.
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5. High Protein
From that we can conclude that healthy people, especially those who need a considerable amount of high quality proteins can’t go wrong with consuming egg whites in their diets. Of course, moderation is advised. Egg whites also contain sodium which can be bad for our body if taken too much, but is essential for body functioning. Anyway, it’s generally safe as long as we don’t exceed the maximum limit of 1.500 mg of sodium.
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6. Help in Maintaining Blood Pressure
Not only are egg whites dense in macronutrients, they also contain some minerals that are essential for our bodies. For instances, one egg white contains 54 mg of potassium, which is a mineral associated with heart health, bone health and generally healthy cell and organ functioning. Mostly, people heard about potassium from other sources such as bananas, which are popular and somewhat widely advised food to take for workout and treatment for low and high blood pressures symptoms.
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7. Lower the Risk of Cardiovascular Disease
Potassium works in maintaining blood pressure by promoting vasodiliation (process in which blood vessels widen) that allows more blood flows and at the same time, keeping the said blood flow from getting clogged. There is a study showed that those who consumed 4.069 mg of potassium each day lowered their risk of cardiovascular disease and ischemic heart disease by 37 percent and 49 percent, respectively.
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8. Reduce Daily Fatigues
As we have discussed in the earlier paragraphs, egg whites contain many essential minerals. But the even more awesome thing is, they work with each other to achieve even greater benefits for our bodies. Potassium is great, but combined with other minerals, they provide other benefits that can’t be possibly achieved by potassium alone. It is sodium, which has almost identical amounts as potassium in egg white, that work with potassium to create membrane potential.
9. Provide Good Materials
Membrane potential is some kind of electrochemical gradient that is critical for muscle contraction, nerve impulse transmission, heart function, and the transfer of nutrients and metabolites throughout cells. We can picture it as some kind of electricity for our body which is necessary to do some essential, background tasks. It is said that it takes 20-40 percent of the resting energy expenditure of a typical adult to maintain the membrane potentials in our bodies. That’s why consuming egg whites can help providing the necessary “materials” to maintain those membrane potentials.
10. Good Nutrition Sources for Diabetics
Researches suggest that people with diabetes who eat seven eggs per week significantly increase their risks of heart disease. The amount of saturated fat and cholesterol might play significant parts at those risks. The case is different with egg whites, because they have nothing resembles fat and other artery-clogging substances, egg whites are perfect for diabetics people who are worried about their dietary choices but need affordable, versatile sources of high quality proteins.
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The cool thing is, just like the whole eggs, there are plenty of ways to eat egg whites. In fact, there are handful of recipes that require more egg whites than the whole eggs. They include but not limited to mayonnaise, custards, ice cream bases, or lemon curd. Of course, we can always prepare and cook them the same way we cook whole eggs, for example, omelettes, scrambled, or steamed. Some other not-widely-known recipes are written all over the internet, which can also be used as inspiration for planning the next week’s meals.
There are several things to keep into account when it comes to consuming eggs, however. First, while eggs are dense of nutritions, they also packed some calories and LDLs, fortunately, it is fairly easy to just separate the egg whites from the yolks to completely negate the heart-related risks. Second, make sure that the egg whites about to be consumed have already been cooked properly.
Raw or uncooked egg whites pose some risks of nasty salmonella infections, which are fairly common bacteria found in poultries. Last, pay attention to allergies. Allergies to eggs are pretty common among people, those are mostly allergies caused by proteins. While they could happen to both egg whites and yolks, apparently egg whites allergies are more common.
It is suggested by a research that as many as 2 percent of children are allergic to eggs. Allergic reactions might range from a mild rash, stomach pain, to anaphylaxis, which is a breathing impairment that can send the body into shock. Fortunately, allergies normally happen in early ages, by age 16, most children with egg allergies outgrow them.
Alright, so those are the many health benefits of eating egg whites. Most of them are pretty obvious already, as people especially those in fitness communities have been consuming egg whites for muscle building for some times now. With all those kept in mind, we should not worry as long as we keep things in moderation. To sum it up, egg whites are really versatile and equally nutritious. Be it for baking or cooking, we can start adding more egg whites into our diets for high quality proteins with low heart-problem risks.
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