Egg

In an eggshell 
The chicken egg offers 13 essential nutrients — everything you need other than vitamin C. “Your body needs high-quality protein, choline, folate, iron and zinc, and the eggs provide all of this in abundance,” says Seetha Bhaskar, nutritionist, dietician and wellness expert. “What’s more, contrary to popular belief, it doesn’t have to be fattening. The average egg contains just about 80 calories.” Primarily consumed for its protein content, which helps muscle power and strength, vegetarians across the country have slowly started including eggs in their diet to make sure they get the right amount of protein. “The riboflavin content in eggs is another reason to have them, so is the presence of all nine essential amino acids and vitamin D,” adds Seetha. Eggs are also high in fibre and certain other minerals, which means they are great for hair, nails and skin. One can’t help but remember the popular jingle in the early years of Indian television by the National Egg Co-ordination Committee (NECC) that made the rounds — “Meri jaan, meri jaan, murghi ke ande.” This endeavour to encourage people to dig into their egg was a huge hit, and appropriately so. 


An eggy debate
There’s a constant debate about the consumption of only egg whites, as opposed to the whole egg, due to the cholesterol in the yolk. “Egg whites are good, no doubt, but have at least one egg yolk a day,” says Seetha. The reason? “The yolk contains choline, folate, lutein, zeaxanthin and vitamin D, along with almost half the egg’s protein content. These ingredients are good for your eyes and brain.”

However, the con lies in it’s cholesterol content — nearly 213 mg per yolk. Given that your daily cholesterol consumption should be less than 300 mg, it is a large amount to be taken in at one go. So restrict yourself to not more than one egg yolk a day and watch your cholesterol intake from other sources. 

Eggs are a mainstay of what bootylicious Hollywood star Megan Fox eats. They are the main source of protein in her diet. In fact, before the release of her film Jennifer’s Body, she told a television channel, “I eat Eggs Benedict every morning with breakfast.” She reportedly tucked into 30 gms of almonds, a good number of eggs and avoided grains during her preparations for her breakthrough film, Transformers.


Article Credit: Idiva.com