Is this a recent thing though. As a kid we ate raw eggs a lot. I ate tons of cookie dough raw.
Never got sick.
As for bodybuilding there are a ton of alternatives to eggs. Any health food store you can buy high protien low carb, no fat mix. I got some you can mix it without a blender and it is flavourless.
Despite my mom freaking out, I eat cookie dough every time I make cookies. It’s never made me sick yet. At least I don’t think so, I have something in the iritable bowel family anyway, so I get the runs so often anyway, I’d never know if that was why. I’ll probably continue to eat cookie dough until it makes me sick, if it ever does. <shrug>
Granted this doen’t make me a nutritionist, but I have put a LOT of study into the matter.
Cooking robs eggs of some of their nutritional value. However this is highly over-rated. But not their protien, which is what you are after.
Excuse the brief run-through, but…
At the molecular level, to your body, animal protien is animal protien. Eat boiled eggs without the yolks. or boiled chicken or extra-lean beef. All taste better anyway.
Further, diet in body building is (and I suspect always be) HIGHLY over-rated - people still believe in spot reducing for God’s sake! Heavy weights, consistancy, P.M.A. and plenty of rest (read:don’t over-train!) is your ticket to success.
Look, the truth is that Salmonella poisoning is not usually that big a deal. People freak out because there is a tiny chance that you could get really sick, if you have a compromised immune system. But the odds are really really low.
The warnings are because it seems like such a simple thing to do, cooking the eggs, to prevent a potentially serious problem. But I say, live a little. Eat your raw eggs, scoff at the danger! Fie on those who cower at the non-existant danger!
If you have a compromised immune system, if you are very young or very old, you are in a different risk group. But this is like the warnings that HIV can be transmitted by oral sex. Sure it can be, but in reality it really isn’t. Yeah, you could be infected, but why worry?
And well, if you drop dead tomorrow, at least you knew the risks.
I would venture that almost all the raw eggs one would encounter in a supermarket are safe to eat.
Think about what a ?raw? egg is… It’s an environment that allows the chicken embryo to develop into a chick. This is the case for fertilized chicken eggs; the eggs you buy at the market are Not Fertilized. But the environment is the rich. If the cells of a chick embryo can grow in an egg, the raw materials for pathogens like bacteria or fungi are there.
An egg that has been infected by pathogens is quite foul smelling~rotten egg smell. It?s quite noticeable and unforgettable. The smell of a rotten egg makes me want to puke. And you?re not going to see an obviously infected egg in the supermarket.
The interior of the egg is one thing; the outside is another. And once the interior of the egg is compromised (like when you crack it), yeah, then you expose a nutrient rich interior environment for, say, Salmonella. The problem lies in the fact that Salmonella is lying in wait on the shell surface and not inside the egg. If it was inside the egg and the egg popped, believe me, anybody within open air would know.
I think it’s un-hygienic egg handling practices that transmit this, not eggs in general.
Wash your hands–don’t transmit germs from one surface to another. That’s just common sense–isn’t it? or maybe common sense isn’t so common.
[[But this is like the warnings that HIV can be transmitted by oral sex. Sure it can be, but in reality it really isn’t.]] We all gamble and prioritize our risk-taking, but I just thought I’d clarify here that HIV CAN be spread via oral sex. It is less risky than other sex practices with an HIV infected partner, but I’m just sayin’. I’ve run across a few people I believe were infected that way.
Oh, and back to the OP… have you thought of just using a protein powder mix? There are some good ones for people who are weight training.
IANAN (Nutritionist), but here’s what I’ve learned:
Egg whites are where the protein (around 95% of total value) is at in an egg. The egg yolk is where the fat is. You can get your high-protein dose by using 3 or 4 egg whites, and scrambling in one of the egg yolks for a little richness and flavor, without adding too much fat. Don’t completely exclude the yolks because they do contain several vitamins and minerals.
You are just as well off eating lean cuts of meat, poultry, and seafood.
The float test only tests freshness. As an egg ages, the inside slowly dries out (as the shell is porous), and the air sac grows (hence the floating). An egg can float but still be fine to eat, it just won’t be as particularly fresh, and will probably be best used in a recipe where being very fresh doesn’t matter (like cookie dough).
When making fresh mayonnaise, I have learned to keep everything cold, cold, cold. I refrigerate my mixing bowl even before I start. The “danger temperature zone” for bacteria growth is between 41 to 140 degrees. Keeping something like fresh mayo at room temperature for even a short period of time is insane. I never keep it longer than 24 hours, even if I’ve barely let it out of the fridge.
A chef instructor explained why he believed we now have such a problem with Salmonella: Our modern farming practices. If you’ve ever seen what your average egg farm looks like, you would understand. Chickens are in cages stacked several high and dozens long, with just barely enough room to move. The chickens are in close quarters and the ones in lower cages can have droppings from their upstairs neighbors fall on them/in their feeding baskets/etc. With being in such close quarters, one chicken with a salmonella problem can pass it along easily.
Your risk factor is relatively low if you by chance swallow an uncooked/partially cooked egg. Yes, it can happen, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that it will.
I never imagined eggs were such a subject of caution and controversy! Lots of good info here.
As for me using the protein mixes at health and fitness shops, I have nothing against them, except cost. That stuff isn’t cheap at all. Also, I always get a bit freaked out when it says something on the label like “anabolic whatever.” I absolutely don’t want any steroids or funky chemical crap in my body. I realize the word anabolic does not necessarily imply steriods, but it makes me squirrely, nonetheless. If I ever choose to buy any mix, I will be certain to read the label thoroughly and ask the clerk about anything I don’t understand.
So far, the best thing I have found to eat that is high-protein, is tuna. Tuna is probably the food most abundant in protein that I am aware of. It has almost no fat, zero carbs, just lots of protein and tastes good. An average six ounce can contains a whopping 32.5 grams of protein, which is equivilent to 57.5% RDA!! IIRC that’s more protein than the mixes I have seen in the fitness shops. Looks like I need to stock up on tuna and bread for tuna sandwiches!
I think I’ll pass on the home-made mayo though. Hellman’s will suit me just fine. ( I can sense you mayo purists shuddering. ) :wally
647:
No; the chicken ovaries are now infected with salmonella, so the bacteria are inside the egg when it’s formed. This is a relatively new occurrence; it was true in the past that the germs were on the outside only. As time goes by, due to the chicken farming methods used today (as described by JavaMaven) more and more chickens and eggs will be infected this way.
MagicalSilverKey:
“Anabolic” simply means it builds up your tissues. I suppose technically, anything you eat could be labelled as “anabolic” for marketing purposes. (“Catabolic” means it breaks down tissues.) Health/fitness stores would have you believe that you have to spend a lot of money for their ‘amazing’ products to achieve results, but they’re feeding you a line of doody.
Raw eggs are common here in Japan. Raw chicken breast, gizzard, and liver are also eaten. I’ve had all of the above, except for the raw egg, at least once and have never gotten ill. I don’t eat raw egg mostly due to my mom’s salmonella horror stories. However most Japanese will say “we don’t have those problems in Japan.” I wonder if Japanese farming methods are so different, or if they have some method (the aforementioned pasturisation?) of preventing contamination. Anyone know?
Hey Holly–“No; the chicken ovaries are now infected with salmonella”
I’d certainly be interested in that. What are your cites?
This link sez that Salmonella is transmitted by a different pathway:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve=PubMed=11006998=Abstract
A highlight being: “Therefore, we concluded the SE [~salmonella] transmission/infection was attributed to horizontal infection in the egg-laying farms but not vertical transmission from parental stock, hatcheries, growth, or food materials during a 7-yr experimental period”
Not from parental stock being the key words that caught my eye. I’m not saying you’re wrong; this article could be BS. I’m interested in evidence that Salmonella comes from the ovaries. What’s the new evidence?
Acually, Holly, you’re right about ovaries infected with Salmonella. I found this link (too bad the article is in German, I’d like to read it):
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve=PubMed=9492578=Abstract
But this link reports that although ovaries may be infected, the eggs may not be (again maybe it’s wrong):
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve=PubMed=7790055=Abstract
Highlight being: “These observations suggest that while forming eggs are significantly colonized in the reproductive tract, factors within the eggs may control the pathogen before the eggs are laid”.
But still, what’s your (for me to read) new evidence that infected ovaries mean internally infected eggs?
All in all, my simplistic first reponse might have to be re-evaluated, but I’ll still eat eggs.
Okay, 647, I’ll repost the link I posted before from the Centers for Disease Control, which contains this quote:
'Nuff said?
Would pasteurized eggs have the same texture and flavor as raw ones? This is why folks need to get over their irrational fear of irradiated foods.
Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to find pasteurized eggs here in NYC. I’ve found several recipe websites with information about them: apparently the flavor and texture in cooking are mostly unchanged. The only visual difference is that the white is occasionally a bit cloudy. I’m afraid I can’t find a cite right now, but as I understand it pasteurized egg whites may not beat as high as unpasteurized. I don’t think that’s really a problem, however, since I can’t think of a single recipe using beaten egg whites where they don’t end up being thoroughly cooked anyway - there wouldn’t be a reason to use pasteurized eggs in the first place.