# Boiled Egg = Less Nutritious?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boiled-egg-less-nutritious/472327>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [November 12, 2008, 9:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boiled-egg-less-nutritious/472327 "2008-11-12T09:57:50Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Invicta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/cc9497/32.png) [@Invicta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Invicta)\
**Post date:** [November 12, 2008, 9:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boiled-egg-less-nutritious/472327/1 "2008-11-12T09:57:50Z")

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This young athlete needs help. I know that when you expose proteins to high temperatures, they start to denaturate. So when you boil an egg, the proteins in egg white start to denaturate and become solid. My question is, does that boiling process make egg lose its nutritious properties? Can I get more protein by drinking raw egg white? (yuck)

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**Author:** ![Chez\_Guevara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/aeb1de/32.png) [@Chez\_Guevara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chez_Guevara)\
**Post date:** [November 12, 2008, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boiled-egg-less-nutritious/472327/2 "2008-11-12T12:51:09Z")

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In the book _Eggs and Health Promotion_ by Ronald Ross Watson, the author tabulates the effect of cooking on the macronutrient and energy content of eggs. Using data obtained from the Royal Chemistry Society, he indicates that no protein is lost by boiling an egg, or indeed by poaching same. A scrambled egg loses 14% of its protein value.

However, substantial percentages of water-soluble vitamins are apparently lost in the boiling process, _e.g._ 56% of vitamin B[sub]12[/sub].

See [Table 17.3](http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=c2ZyQYTqzk0C&pg=PA179&lpg=PA178&ots=K50oJeN1ds&dq=egg+nutrition+raw+boiled+fried+table+17.3&ie=ISO-8859-1&output=html) and the paragraph above.

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**Author:** ![Invicta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/cc9497/32.png) [@Invicta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Invicta)\
**Post date:** [November 12, 2008, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boiled-egg-less-nutritious/472327/3 "2008-11-12T14:32:50Z")

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Wow thanks, that really explained a lot.