What is the healthiest way to cook eggs?

Eggs are a healthy food, easy to find, and relatively inexpensive compared to other protein sources such as meat. There are many ways to enjoy eggs. Starting from being eaten raw to boiling, fried, or steaming. It is important to pay attention to how to cook the best eggs. This is so you can maintain the quality of the eggs. If they are not cooked properly, the benefits of eggs will not be optimal in maintaining a healthy body.

Eggs are best cooked

Cooked eggs are certainly safer to eat and also make some of the nutrients in them easier for the body to digest. One of the nutrients is protein. Research shows that heating makes egg protein easier to digest in the body.

This is reinforced by research from the Healthline website which shows that the human body can use 91 percent of the protein in cooked eggs. The human body uses only 51 percent of the protein in raw eggs.

Heating encourages changes in the protein structure in the egg. In raw eggs, protein compounds still take the form of complex structures. When you warm up, the heat breaks these complex bonds and forms new bonds that are easier to break in the body.

Eggs are basically rich in vitamin B7. Vtamin B7 or biotin has an important function in regulating the breakdown of sugars and fats.

In raw eggs, biotin is still structurally bound to avidin. Avidin is one of the compounds in protein. The binding of biotin with avidin makes biotin unusable by the body. However, when the eggs are cooked, the heat in the processing will cause structural changes in the avidin. The power of avidin to bind biotin is reduced, and biotin is easily absorbed by the body.

Therefore, the best way to eat eggs is to cook them first.

Various ways of cooking eggs are often done

There are various ways to cook eggs that are very popular until now, such as:

Boil. This is the technique of cooking ingredients in a liquid until boiling 6-10 minutes. For example, putting a whole raw egg in a saucepan of boiling water.
Poached. This is a technique of cooking food ingredients in liquids that are not too much or just cover the ingredients that are boiled over low heat (71-82 degrees Celsius) 2.5-3 minutes. For example, put a raw egg in water, without the shell.
Fry. Fried egg is cracked and heated on a hot pan filled with a thin layer of oil. For example, like when you make fried eggs.
Grilling. Eggs are cracked and baked in a hot oven.

Then, what should be the healthiest way to cook eggs?

1. Choose the cooking method that is the least calorie

Source: 101 Cookbook

If you are reducing your calorie meals, choose how to cook eggs by boiling them. There are two kinds of ways to boil it, boil it with the skin then peel it off. Or boil it without the skin, you break the egg shell and simply boil the contents of the egg in boiling water.

This cooking method does not add any calories from the oil. So, this method is definitely the most appropriate way if you are reducing calories than fried.

2. Mix eggs with vegetables

The way to cook eggs so that your egg dish is richer in nutrients is to mix it with vegetables.

For example, if you really want to cook an omelette, add your favorite vegetables which are cut into small pieces in the egg. For example, chopped carrots, small pieces of tomatoes, chopped green onions, or spinach. If you don't want to mix it up, you can serve the egg menu along with another vegetable menu on the side

Vegetables are rich in vitamins and minerals and fiber. This will make your egg dishes at home even healthier.

3. Cook the eggs at a stable high temperature

The best oil conditions when cooking eggs are when the oil is at a high temperature, such as when frying. This high temperature is not easily oxidized so it can ward off the formation of harmful free radicals in your food. Make sure the oil is hot first before putting the eggs in the pan.

Apart from the high temperature you can also use oils such as coconut oil or extra virgin olive oil which are good for cooking at high temperatures.

4. Do not overcook it

The longer and hotter you cook the eggs, the more nutrients are likely to be lost from the eggs. Especially vitamins. When the eggs are cooked, remove them and serve immediately.