hoosegow wrote:
Hows the best way to cook them, time/egg, etc?
Best method for cooking whole eggs is either soft boiled or sunny side up. You want your egg whites cooked and your yolks close to raw. Why?
1. MYTH Eating egg yolks will raise your cholesterol. The current data suggests its not the cholesterol you intake that raises blood cholesterol levels, but wether or not that cholesterol is oxidized (which happens when you cook or expose it to air). The microwave is an oxidation factory, swirling currents of hot air passing all over your food. It takes like 3 minutes to cook an egg sunny side up on my gas range and 5 minutes to eat 2 of them. I cook them last and eat them first. So at most my eggs are exposed to the air for about 10 minutes, 3 of which is over heat. Its not a perfect method, but its the best trade off so far. Also, I'm not sure how pasturization effects oxidation, but I'd think it was not good.
2. You want the whites cooked. Egg whites contain avidin, which binds to botin. Eating lots of raw egg whites can lead to a biotin deficiency. Cooking the whites will deactviate the avidin. Pasturized egg white products (like egg beaters) pass this test and should be safe to drink straight from the carton, you gross bastards! ehm, well if your Rocky, or anywhere as dangerous in the ring, your not so gross, the rest of you digust me! j/k
3. You want runny yolks. Cooking the yolks destroys many of the nutrients found within and oxidizes the cholesterol and fats to an unacceptable degree. Scrambled eggs are the worst for oxidized fats and cholesterol. The whites don't have as much fat or cholesterol in them so the effects of cooking them are not as risky. If your eaitng Omega3 eggs, and you should, this will also protect those fats (which are good for you regaurdless of your goals).
When I started paying more attention to diet and the foods I was eating, I got put on this diet that only let me have eggs in the form of egg beaters. Well, now I have 2-3 whole omega3 eggs, suny side up. Its a lot more appetizing (runny yolks took a bit to get used to but just mash em up and its like scrambled eggs) and more inline with eating whole natural foods. BTW, omega3 eggs get their omega3 from the diet fed to the chickens, so its not like added later or anything.
As always these are my opinions based on my laymans research. I'm open to discussion and/or critism (as long as its mature and constructive). I say eat the egg, the whole egg and nuthin but the egg (well excpet for maybe some veggies), sunny side up by god!
thems my $.02