Eggs - cooking vs. raw

Goldenrod

Goldenrod

Well-known member
Staff member
It has been said an egg gives X grams of protein raw and it provides more if you cook it, but never have I seen anything listed as a link to a study or reason on the forums. I also may have just missed it. On average it is said to have 5-7 grams of protein and is often referred to as a 'close to perfect' food. They are easily digestible and are often a go to after a workout vs. protein powder. I would rather scramble up 6 eggs and throw a little cheese and ham/turkey for flavour too.

Anyway, I started reading in some of the books I have and researching in the internet and there were explanations why cooking increases the protein. It appears it doesn't 'increase' the protein in the egg but it 'increases' the protein your body can absorb by changing the egg. It makes the protein easier to absorb. I'm the first to admit, I am lazy with meals sometimes and don't want to spend 30 minutes cooking after a workout so I eat 6 raw eggs/or 6 scrambled eggs which takes about 3-5 minutes, 3-6 tablespoons of almonds or walnuts, tablespoon of EVOO, and a banana (just an example of a quick and reasonably healthy meal) while I stick a roast in the oven that will be ready in 2 hours.

Few links that you may find interesting:
www.healthline.com

What Is the Healthiest Way to Cook and Eat Eggs?

Eggs are a superfood, but not all cooking methods are equal. Here are the healthiest ways to cook and eat eggs.
www.healthline.com www.healthline.com

If you want more info just keep searching. I eat a lot of eggs and eat them whole, don't just eat the egg whites - I want the choline and nutrition from the yolk too.
Anyone who has contradicting evidence please post it. There is concern about eating raw eggs but I must be a lucky guy as I can't tell you how many 100's of raw eggs I have gulped down and never had an issue. I buy all my eggs from the farmer up the road with free range chickens.
 
The folding of complex proteins change a lot during cooking process (heat). Not only happens with eggs, you can see this with any type. Meats, raw dairy etc… While the difference might be marginal, your digestion and enzymatic functions will really thank you for cooking any protein you ingest.
 
I drink eggs if I need a quick fix. I'll crack one in a cup with a couple oz of milk and blend it up with a fork and fire it down in one gulp. The milk blend helps take away the snot like texture and makes it taste half decent.

I'll fire down 2 or 3 like this and it really seems to gross out anyone that's around to see me do it, not sure why as it's a great way to hold down your hunger in short notice.

I dont think I could drink 3 or more eggs cracked into one cup un-blended though, that's too hardcore
 
I drink egg whites (pasteurized) daily. About 3-4 cups mixed with chocolate milk.

It’s unreal. Sugar, fat, protein - macros are solid and can be dialled in. Great in between meals or at work and it tastes great.

Digestion and lean muscle gain have been solid.
 
What we are talking about here is bioavailability and denaturing. There are exceptions and tangents to everything I say after this.

Bioavailability is basically the level or percentage of what's consumed that we can use. Note that doesn't mean it is the end all, be all for bodybuilding or any health matter but it is at the top of the pyramid.

Denaturing is what @Rolls roydz first mentioned. Basically in this discussion it's the breaking down or at least restructuring of proteins.

I like my anecdotes and visualizing things. You have to have an open mind here. I like to think of this by visualizing a very complex little piece of origami made from edible but not easily digestible rice paper. If you were to take one and crush it right down into a tight little ball this would represent a protein. Pop that in your mouth swallow it. That ball has a chance of making it all the way through your system and into the shitter without being fully digestible. Like a kernel of corn might.

Denaturing would be unfolding that tight little ball and flattening it right out, maybe tearing a few small chunks loose. Much more easily broken down and digested, no peanuts in yer toilet bowl.

The more denatured a protein is the more bioavailable it is. Your body denatures protein mostly with digestive juices. Hydrolyzed protein powders are just regular whey or casein that has been chemically denatured for better bioavailability (and also taste like garbage, literally). And heat denatures all proteins, peak temp and time determine how much.

Eggs have been shown multiple times to respond to cooking by roughly doubling the bioavailabilty from raw once they are fully cooked, I've seen numbers right along the ones in the article posted 50% raw and 90+% cooked.
Pasteurized egg whites in the carton fall in between somewhere. Personally I have been on what seems like an life long exhausting quest to pin down an actual scientifically proven number with no luck, long time members here are probably sick of hearing me ask. Get me an answer and I shut up, partial explanations and opinions need not apply :)

For reference egg whites are considered fully cooked at 185 deg and pasteurized only goes to 160 (?ish) . I cant recall the numbers for yolk.

The down side of cooking is that there has been some evidence of loss of other nutrients, I don't know the details. The upside is effectively double the useable protein.

My personal opinion is to say no to raw but if it satisfies your needs go for it.

I guess salmonella etc should get a mention, seems like everyone is aware of the potential problems and you have to make your own call on that. Personally I ate a fuckton of raw hamburger and steak when I was growing so I probably should be disqualified from that discussion.
 
Shrek said:
I drink eggs if I need a quick fix. I'll crack one in a cup with a couple oz of milk and blend it up with a fork and fire it down in one gulp. The milk blend helps take away the snot like texture and makes it taste half decent.

I'll fire down 2 or 3 like this and it really seems to gross out anyone that's around to see me do it, not sure why as it's a great way to hold down your hunger in short notice.

I dont think I could drink 3 or more eggs cracked into one cup un-blended though, that's too hardcore
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I like the eggs better if I don't scramble them, the yolk has a gross taste raw. I just gulp down the yolks, but of milk and it tastes like thick milk. I tried scrambling once, lol.
 
i thought i read raw eggs have a lower bioavailability and thus get thrown into waste rather than getting absorbed.
 
I know a little about eggs and whites and how they're processed. They often add extra salt into pasteurized egg whites and I wouldn't trust the pasteurizing process. Also eggs in some countries like England are vaccinated against things like Salmonella so you don't need to refrigerate them. In Canada they are not. Eggs rate #1 on the protein quality index, so I try to have eggs with my whey or meat, nuts are fairly low on that scale.

It takes 2 minutes to throw your pan on high and just sear cook some scrambled eggs so you might as well just cook it.
 
2min in the mic if you dont have time to cook em, but fuck that raw egg shit. I mean, raw yolk with sugar, cinnamon and a splash of vanilla extract is something else though.
 
Don’t quote me on this, but I remember a while ago reading an article that suggested that the two might not be that different. I remember it suggesting something like a certain percentage of proteins get destroyed in the cooking process, while bioavailability is increased, while in raw eggs, all proteins are retained, but the bioavailability is decreased. So think of it like in cooking, 50% is destroyed but you absorb 100% of the remainder, and in raw eggs, 100% of the proteins are there but you only absorb 50% of them. Again, don’t quote me on that because It’s just a vague memory of an article I read, but that would be interesting.
 
RubberbandB said:
Don’t quote me on this, but I remember a while ago reading an article that suggested that the two might not be that different. I remember it suggesting something like a certain percentage of proteins get destroyed in the cooking process, while bioavailability is increased, while in raw eggs, all proteins are retained, but the bioavailability is decreased. So think of it like in cooking, 50% is destroyed but you absorb 100% of the remainder, and in raw eggs, 100% of the proteins are there but you only absorb 50% of them. Again, don’t quote me on that because It’s just a vague memory of an article I read, but that would be interesting.
Click to expand...

Ha Ha I quoted you on this. ;)
On a serious note I've enjoyed your posts since you arrived here, good, sensible contributions and questions too. Thank you.

Barring some extremes in the cooking process I am skeptical of that info though, doesn't fall in my understanding. I'll be the first to admit that it's not an easy subject to understand. Without being deeply educated about it all us laymen are often misusing words and their definitions. It makes it easier to discuss in a forum like this but when used in their technically correct way these words and phrases don't mean the same thing as they do in everyday conversation.

Absorbed? or Utilized?
Destroyed? or Denatured?
Is denatured good or bad? both? (yes)
Bioavailable? How does that affect Muscle Protein Synthesis? Or Cell Turnover? Or Hypertrophy?

Most meatheads don't understand the intricacies or their consequences of this stuff, myself included.
I think it was @DeeKnows among many others over time who have pointed out that that's ok because ultimately we don't usually really need to as long as we eat a bunch of protein everyday it will cover most everyone's needs very well.

I agree, my interest in knowing the minutia comes from young gondars realization that with non Olympian genetics I would need to milk every little tiny percentage of every available tiny percentage of helpful info and practice out of this life to have any hope of accomplishing anything great in the sport. I still failed at that goal miserably lol, never even felt good enough to step on stage, no desire to compete and finish mid pack.

Got big and strong, moved some decently heavy iron and had a good time doing it though. No doubt in my mind I got further due to my curiosity than I would have without it.

This ramble brought to you by the fact that this cooked vs raw question has been stuck in my craw for decades, probably the most persistently irritating question I've ever faced other than what the fuck goes on in a woman's mind?

If you ever do recall where you heard that stuff please post, could be interesting. Cheers
 
gondar1 said:
Ha Ha I quoted you on this. ;)
On a serious note I've enjoyed your posts since you arrived here, good, sensible contributions and questions too. Thank you.

Barring some extremes in the cooking process I am skeptical of that info though, doesn't fall in my understanding. I'll be the first to admit that it's not an easy subject to understand. Without being deeply educated about it all us laymen are often misusing words and their definitions. It makes it easier to discuss in a forum like this but when used in their technically correct way these words and phrases don't mean the same thing as they do in everyday conversation.

Absorbed? or Utilized?
Destroyed? or Denatured?
Is denatured good or bad? both? (yes)
Bioavailable? How does that affect Muscle Protein Synthesis? Or Cell Turnover? Or Hypertrophy?

Most meatheads don't understand the intricacies or their consequences of this stuff, myself included.
I think it was @DeeKnows among many others over time who have pointed out that that's ok because ultimately we don't usually really need to as long as we eat a bunch of protein everyday it will cover most everyone's needs very well.

I agree, my interest in knowing the minutia comes from young gondars realization that with non Olympian genetics I would need to milk every little tiny percentage of every available tiny percentage of helpful info and practice out of this life to have any hope of accomplishing anything great in the sport. I still failed at that goal miserably lol, never even felt good enough to step on stage, no desire to compete and finish mid pack.

Got big and strong, moved some decently heavy iron and had a good time doing it though. No doubt in my mind I got further due to my curiosity than I would have without it.

This ramble brought to you by the fact that this cooked vs raw question has been stuck in my craw for decades, probably the most persistently irritating question I've ever faced other than what the fuck goes on in a woman's mind?

If you ever do recall where you heard that stuff please post, could be interesting. Cheers
Click to expand...
I really appreciate your kind words. I am currently at work and will find anything I can as soon as I’m off. We will definitely get to the bottom of this.
 
Trenbolone&Cheese said:
i thought i read raw eggs have a lower bioavailability and thus get thrown into waste rather than getting absorbed.
Click to expand...

My understanding is that cooked protein has a sigifcantly higher bioavaliility.. I recall documentations that showed through fossils/bones that once humans dicovered fire and cooked over top of it that we as a race started to get bigger, taller, bigger brains etc. and it was attributed to cooked food being more nutrisious than non cooked..

Could also be we died less once we started cooking shit lol
 
gondar1 said:
Ha Ha I quoted you on this. ;)
On a serious note I've enjoyed your posts since you arrived here, good, sensible contributions and questions too. Thank you.

Barring some extremes in the cooking process I am skeptical of that info though, doesn't fall in my understanding. I'll be the first to admit that it's not an easy subject to understand. Without being deeply educated about it all us laymen are often misusing words and their definitions. It makes it easier to discuss in a forum like this but when used in their technically correct way these words and phrases don't mean the same thing as they do in everyday conversation.

Absorbed? or Utilized?
Destroyed? or Denatured?
Is denatured good or bad? both? (yes)
Bioavailable? How does that affect Muscle Protein Synthesis? Or Cell Turnover? Or Hypertrophy?

Most meatheads don't understand the intricacies or their consequences of this stuff, myself included.
I think it was @DeeKnows among many others over time who have pointed out that that's ok because ultimately we don't usually really need to as long as we eat a bunch of protein everyday it will cover most everyone's needs very well.

I agree, my interest in knowing the minutia comes from young gondars realization that with non Olympian genetics I would need to milk every little tiny percentage of every available tiny percentage of helpful info and practice out of this life to have any hope of accomplishing anything great in the sport. I still failed at that goal miserably lol, never even felt good enough to step on stage, no desire to compete and finish mid pack.

Got big and strong, moved some decently heavy iron and had a good time doing it though. No doubt in my mind I got further due to my curiosity than I would have without it.

This ramble brought to you by the fact that this cooked vs raw question has been stuck in my craw for decades, probably the most persistently irritating question I've ever faced other than what the fuck goes on in a woman's mind?

If you ever do recall where you heard that stuff please post, could be interesting. Cheers
Click to expand...
Okay so I did some brief digging and couldn’t find the article that I tried recalling. I’m sure if I dig long enough I can find something that fits the narrative, but most credible studies seem to agree that heat is needed to denature the proteins in raw eggs in a way where ileal digestion is significantly increased as opposed to not cooking it. I’ve come to the conclusion that as long as your eggs are coming from a clean source with a minimal risk of contamination, and you REALLY like raw eggs, and don’t rely that much on the protein contents of the eggs, then I see no harm, drink as many eggs as your heart desires. However If your main concern is bioavailable protein in eggs, you gotta cook them, that’s your best bet.
 
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