Different Healthy Ways of Eating Eggs

Eggs are a very complete food and they're practically essential in the diets of athletes, which is why we present to you some unconventional ways you can prepare them. Choose the one you love the most!

Athletes need to maintain a constant protein intake. For some people, the need for this macronutrient may be bigger so there’s always the ongoing pursuit of new, easy and fast ways to consume protein. Eating eggs is one of the preferred options in the world of sports. It’s a versatile food with a high protein content.

Nutritional composition

Protein

Whether you prefer egg white or yolk, both contain protein. While in the egg white, protein is in aqueous solution, in the yolk it’s bound to lipids, thus forming a dispersion. That’s why these two areas of the egg behave differently while cooking.

These are proteins of high biologic value due to the abundance of essential amino acids and for this reason, eggs are used as a reference product. Plus, they’re also useful to calculate the index of the protein quality in other foods.

Vitamins and minerals

They contain high amounts of both water-soluble vitamins (B2, Biotin, B12) and fat-soluble ones (A,D,K). They’re also high in selenium, iodine, iron and zinc. All this helps us to recover after exercising and maintain the right conditions to face our next training session.

Eggs meet athletes’ interests

The nutritional characteristics of eggs are just one of the reasons why athletes choose to eat them.

Eggs are versatile and easy-to-cook which make them one of the main resources that athletes and sport lovers benefit from.

Their liking for eating eggs also comes from the amount of protein that they contain, you can mainly find this in egg whites. Nowadays in supermarkets we can find packages of only egg whites, so we don’t have to waste the egg yolk.

Why should an athlete include eggs in their diet?

When you want to increase the amount of protein you consume every day, your first resource should be the very foods you eat. 

Protein is a nutrient that’s present mainly in animal products and also in legumes and cereals, though in lower quantities. The fact that they are very specific products means that there isn’t much variety, so when we try a high-protein diet, we’re more likely to fail. 

Significantly increasing your intake of meat, fish and eggs results in an extremely satiating diet, different from what you’re probably used to. By following a high-protein diet means you may end up buying expensive protein supplements that can be completely unnecessary.

Eggs are the most versatile high-in-protein food, which is why we should benefit from them as much as we can.

Eating eggs with other foods

Add egg whites to other products so that you don’t taste it too much, like mashed potatoes and cream soups. 

Also, if you’ve just boiled vegetables, add the egg whites or the whole egg to the hot water. Then blend it with a food processor.

For those who might be worried about getting salmonella from eggs, keep in mind that the heat is enough for the egg white to cook and therefore you won’t  be exposed to any risk. 

Oil-free fried eggs

Technically, “fried” isn’t the word we should be using here, but… you get the idea. The mechanism is just the same: heat up a pan and fill it with around 1 cm of water. Then wait for it to boil and throw in the egg. 

You’ll get something similar to a fried egg, but with no additional fats: great for losing weight.

Cooking time is just the same as that of a fried egg, so now you have no excuses to make it!

Microwaved eggs

For this you don’t even need water, oil or anything. Only a microwave and that’s it. The first time you try this, we advise you to be careful, since every microwave is different. 

Put the egg in a non-stick container or use a drop of oil, spread it around and put some parchment paper, so that the egg doesn’t stick. Then, cover it with some plastic wrap. Pinch some holes in the egg with a fork, so that the air doesn’t concentrate inside the container.

Start with 40 seconds at medium power and check the egg white; if it’s raw then add another couple seconds in the microwave. If you cook it for too long, the egg yolk will harden, which is still good depending on your taste.

Typical ways of eating eggs

Of course there are still some typical ways to cook eggs that we’ve all tried before. Boiled, poached, omelette… To this last one you might add an extra egg white to give it more volume and protein concentration. By doing so you won’t be increasing the amount of fats.