Drinking (whole) Raw Eggs. Good? Bad? Dangerous?

[Lies]

I've heard a bunch of conflicting info about the benefits of drinking raw eggs.

It is attractive to me for the following reasons:
Eggs are cheap , drinking eggs is an easy protein+ fat meal, it tastes pretty good to me.

I have heard two things regarding to absorbtion.

school of though #1 drinking raw eggs is a superior way to get their protein because the proteins do not get denatured from the cooking process (e.g. fried eggs supposedly get denatured somewhat)
#2 eating cooking eggs makes their protein more absorbable by your body

I have also read some **** about albumen binding to biotin and excessive drinking of eggwhites gives you a biotin deficiency. but also egg yolks are high in biotin, so if you drink yolk+white is the biotin concern voided?

I don't have reps to give, but i think it would be awesome to see some science put this myth to bed.

[Riskity]

Your body denatures the protein anyway, so cooking is good. It allows you to absorb more protein, and there's less risk of salmonella.

[Lies]

thanks for the answer.

does anybody with a background in biology have any info?

[magicmatt]

thanks for the answer.

does anybody with a background in biology have any info?

raw eggs only have about half of the protein available. go to the store and buy pasturized egg whites. they make shakes taste amazing almost like mixing with milk. 8 oz has 26 grams of protein too.

[Lies]

thanks for the idea. is the idea with the pasteurized egg whites that the protein has been sufficiently cooked or denatured so that it is more bio-available?

I honestly have been googling and googling and can't find any scientific basis for why uncooked egg is only 51% bioavailable whereas a cooked egg is said to be 91%

[AmericanPsycho]

I've mixed raw eggs with orange juice before and it tasted good but I'd do what one said and mixed pasteurized egg whites instead.

[Trans_Isomer]

don't drink raw eggs

its more bioavailable when cooked

chance of salmonella poisoning

robs your body of b-vitamins / biotin i believe when consumed raw

[Beejis60]

is the idea with the pasteurized egg whites that the protein has been sufficiently cooked or denatured so that it is more bio-available?

Yes. Plus you're not ingesting asstons of avidin.

chance of salmonella poisoning

robs your body of b-vitamins / biotin i believe when consumed raw

Salmonella is rare; something like 1 in 100,000 or 1 in a million.
It's only the biotin that binds to the avidin.

[Kayola]

I thought that the Avidin Protein in the egg white has to be brought up to at least 120 deg f for the body to absorb. thus making more since to use pasturized eggs or egg whites as opposed to raw.

[ben2285]

Denaturing a protein is not a bad thing somehow people associate denature with destroy and that is not the case.... When you are denaturing a protein you are changing its conformational shape (or "unfolding" it) this is why a raw egg white is clear, and a cooked egg white is white (it changes the properties and appearance of the molecules). Proteins get denatured by excessive heat or acidity and they get denatured any time you eat a protein containing meal by the HCL in your stomach. In many cases (such as in this one) it increases not decreases bioavailabity.

Salmonella may be a concern with uncooked, unpasteurized eggs. So if you buy the pasteurized kind you can have them raw, I just think cooking them would be better.

[in10city]

thanks for the idea. is the idea with the pasteurized egg whites that the protein has been sufficiently cooked or denatured so that it is more bio-available?

I honestly have been googling and googling and can't find any scientific basis for why uncooked egg is only 51% bioavailable whereas a cooked egg is said to be 91%

Digestibility of Cooked and Raw Egg Protein in Humans as Assessed by Stable Isotope Techniques

1 in 20,000 - 30,000 may contain Salmonella.

As for avidin, from what I've seen, avidin irreversibly denatures at 65-70 degrees C. Some companies say that the pasteurization temperature isn't high enough to break the bond (http://www.betterneggs.com/faq/answer.cfm?qid=17), while others claim it does (http://www.eggwhitesint.com/go/bodybuilding-protein)

[RemainDieHard]

Digestibility of Cooked and Raw Egg Protein in Humans as Assessed by Stable Isotope Techniques

1 in 20,000 - 30,000 may contain Salmonella.

As for avidin, from what I've seen, avidin irreversibly denatures at 65-70 degrees C. Some companies say that the pasteurization temperature isn't high enough to break the bond (http://www.betterneggs.com/faq/answer.cfm?qid=17), while others claim it does (http://www.eggwhitesint.com/go/bodybuilding-protein)

Can you break that study down for us? I looked over it and it didn't have a conclusion and the rest was not clear without reading the whole thing.

[Serpens Aeon]

Sorry to backtrack, folks, but what is avidin and why should I care about it in the context of egg consumption?

[magnetix]

Denaturing a protein is not a bad thing somehow people associate denature with destroy and that is not the case.... When you are denaturing a protein you are changing its conformational shape (or "unfolding" it) this is why a raw egg white is clear, and a cooked egg white is white (it changes the properties and appearance of the molecules). Proteins get denatured by excessive heat or acidity and they get denatured any time you eat a protein containing meal by the HCL in your stomach. In many cases (such as in this one) it increases not decreases bioavailabity.

Salmonella may be a concern with uncooked, unpasteurized eggs. So if you buy the pasteurized kind you can have them raw, I just think cooking them would be better.

so is there any difference between cooked and uncooked in terms of bioavailability?

[ben2285]

so is there any difference between cooked and uncooked in terms of bioavailability?

yes, in this case cooked is much more bioavailable... It is also cited in that study which showed the bioavailability of eggs almost doubles from around 50% (raw) to a bit above 90% when cooked.

Both taken from the study posted:

"The true ileal digestibility of cooked and raw egg protein amounted to 90.9 ? 0.8 and 51.3 ? 9.8% , respectively."

"In summary, using the 15N-dilution technique we demonstrated that the assimilation of cooked egg protein is efficient, albeit incomplete, and that the true ileal digestibility of egg protein is significantly enhanced by heat-pretreatment. "

[DanMan89]

what about like under cooked or warmed in microwave eggs.
soo is it good or bad to drinkem ?
i have had like a carton of egg whites a few times but i think they were like heat treated or something.

[Kayola]

what about like under cooked or warmed in microwave eggs.
soo is it good or bad to drinkem ?
i have had like a carton of egg whites a few times but i think they were like heat treated or something.

if the egg carton says pasteurized then your fine. that means its been brought up to temp.

[magnetix]

yes, in this case cooked is much more bioavailable... It is also cited in that study which showed the bioavailability of eggs almost doubles from around 50% (raw) to a bit above 90% when cooked.

Both taken from the study posted:

"The true ileal digestibility of cooked and raw egg protein amounted to 90.9 ? 0.8 and 51.3 ? 9.8% , respectively."

"In summary, using the 15N-dilution technique we demonstrated that the assimilation of cooked egg protein is efficient, albeit incomplete, and that the true ileal digestibility of egg protein is significantly enhanced by heat-pretreatment. "

goddamn and i wanted to start raw egg shake drinking.

[Lies]

Well, after all that info there goes the placebo effects anyways.

Pasteurized eggs solve the avidin/biotin problem, but what about the bioavailability. It doesn't make sense that a "raw" pasteurized egg would have the same bioavailability of say a hard-boiled one

[Caleb]

Can you break that study down for us? I looked over it and it didn't have a conclusion and the rest was not clear without reading the whole thing.

Not trying to be an @$$ here man, but honestly... He linked it for you, if you are curious, the least you could do was read it.

Why would you want someone elses opinion of the facts, without reading all the facts yourself first? That is how missinformation/misinterpretation of the facts get so spread around.

[Lies]

Would putting lemon juice in with a few raw eggs and shaking it up good be sufficient to denature some of the protein? Acid does denature protein after all...

[Beejis60]

Would putting lemon juice in with a few raw eggs and shaking it up good be sufficient to denature some of the protein? Acid does denature protein after all...

Or you could do just as everyone says around here and simply buy the pasteurized whites or cook them yourself.
And I don't think the acidity of lemon juice is high enough to knockout the avidin.

[NO HYPE]

I don't think the acidity of lemon juice is high enough to knockout the avidin.

Not unless his lemon juice contains guanidinium chloride.

[ianfunkinhard]

raw eggs only have about half of the protein available. go to the store and buy pasturized egg whites. they make shakes taste amazing almost like mixing with milk. 8 oz has 26 grams of protein too.

Hey mate what is pasturized egg whites?

and where do you get those? like a health food store?

[dochall22]

You get more energy if you swallow eggs whole, including shell.

[Loomy]

Hey mate what is pasturized egg whites?

and where do you get those? like a health food store?

they sell some **** in the egg section in cartons that has color and flavor and bull**** added so people can make easy fake omlets "EGG BEATERS" for instance

next to that stuff will be a similar carton of ONLY plain egg whites

note that this is probably not a monetarily efficient way to get a lot of protein.

[uxoriouswidow]

Sorry to backtrack, folks, but what is avidin and why should I care about it in the context of egg consumption?

It binds to, and thereby prevents the absorbtion of, biotin by your GIT.

[javyn]

I didn't need all those studies to eventually realize cooked is better. I can only eat half as many eggs cooked as raw, so I assumed right then that there's more I'm getting out of them cooked if I'm filling up on fewer eggs.

Still though, mixing raw eggs and maple syrup into a protein shake tastes amazing!

[C-Squared]

raw eggs only have about half of the protein available. go to the store and buy pasturized egg whites. they make shakes taste amazing almost like mixing with milk. 8 oz has 26 grams of protein too.

WOW @ actually RECOMMENDING pasteurized products, good lord...

[labradarep]

Digestibility of Cooked and Raw Egg Protein in Humans as Assessed by Stable Isotope Techniques

1 in 20,000 - 30,000 may contain Salmonella.

As for avidin, from what I've seen, avidin irreversibly denatures at 65-70 degrees C. Some companies say that the pasteurization temperature isn't high enough to break the bond (http://www.betterneggs.com/faq/answer.cfm?qid=17), while others claim it does (http://www.eggwhitesint.com/go/bodybuilding-protein)

You beat me to it. That is a really good article about protein absorption.