Three reasons to fall in love with eggs

It’s World Egg Day today so I can’t think of a better reason to celebrate the humble egg as a great source of nutrition.   Eggs have had a bit of a rocky history in nutrition. While it has always been known that they provide great nutritional value, their cholesterol content lead to recommendations on restricting their consumption to just a few a week.  The good news is we now know that cholesterol in our food isn’t a big influencer of our own cholesterol levels, and an egg or two a day is  fine in context of a healthy diet.

Eggs are a source of omega 3 fats:
We tend to think of fish and seafood when we talk omega 3 fats. While these are some of the best sources, omega 3 fats are also found in eggs. One egg contains around 90mg, so if you’re having 2 eggs for breakfast then you get 180mg, which is a good contributor to the 500mg recommended a day (or 3500mg over a week)

Eggs are one of the few food sources of vitamin D:
Most of our vitamin D is synthesised when the UVB rays from sunlight hit our skin, however dietary sources do top up our levels. It’s recommended by the Ministry of Health that adults aged 0-50 consume 5 mcg a day, with oily fish, beef liver and egg yolks being food sources. Vitamin D is an essential nutrient for bone health and growing body of research suggests that vitamin D might play some role in the prevention and treatment of both type 1 and 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, glucose intolerance, multiple sclerosis, and other medical conditions although we need more solid studies for this.

 Eggs are a good source of a range of other nutrients:

Eggs are also a good source of vitamin  B12,  pantothenic acid, riboflavin, and folate. They’re also a source of vitamin A and E and provide iodine, iron, zinc and phosphorus.

So as you can see, they provide quite a nutritional punch.

Here’s some of my favourite egg based recipes:

Sweet Berry Omelette
For a bit of a twist, this omlette is filled with raspberries, banana and cinnamon and topped with a little maple syrup.

Feta, Pumpkin and Mushroom Frittatas
I make these for lunches sometimes in Texas muffin tins for nice portion sizes. With a blend of quiona, vegetables and feta they’re balanced, tasty lunch.

 

Spanish style hash and eggs

Crispy potato, fried egg and chopped vegetables cooked in smoky paprika – yummy is all I can say about that!