Exploding Food Myth 8. Raw eggs are healthier than cooked

(Photo: David Santos.com

The opposite is true, as raw eggs are more difficult to digest than cooked because the liquid state of the white resists the effect of our gastric juices, absorbing only about half. When coagulated by cooking, 92% of the white is digestible. But is there a nutritional difference about how you cook an egg? Not a lot, really, unless you want to be persnickety. For instance, comparing raw with fried, both are an excellent source of Vitamin B12, riboflavin, phosphorous and selenium, as well as Vitamin A, iron, folate - in about equal amounts. However, eggs do contain cholesterol, as anyone with a high count of the bad stuff will tell you. An egg contains about 210 mg of cholesterol, no matter if fried or hard-boiled - and the intake of cholesterol should not exceed 300 mg in a day, according to most advice. Yet eggs are the most complete foods we can consume because they contain all seven essential amino acids. Like everything else, if you eat too many eggs, it won't be good for you (but will give your cholesterol count a wonderful time), so balance is the thing.