Egg Whites Vs. Egg Yolks

A lot of people ask me if they should eat the yolks of their eggs or just eat the whites. It seems there is still an enormous amount of confusion out there when it comes to egg whites vs. egg yolks, and whether or not you should eat eggs whole or throw away the yolks. So, I thought I would write this article to make it clear what the differences between the yolks and the whites are, and when you should eat your eggs whole and when you should just eat the whites.

Egg Whites

Egg whites contain approximately half of the protein in the egg and that's about it. They have trace amounts of vitamins and minerals and are virtually fat and cholesterol free. They are also very low in calories - one large egg white has about 15 to 20 calories. So, you could eat 10 egg whites but only consume about 200 calories at most.

Egg Yolks

Egg yolks also contain about half of the protein in an egg, as well as most of the fat, cholesterol, vitamins, minerals and amino acids. There's still a lot of debate over whether or not the fat and cholesterol in an egg yolk is good or bad for you, but it is safe to say that you can eat about 2 egg yolks per day without having to worry about. You can basically think of an egg yolk as a multivitamin. Egg yolks contain a lot of B12, B6, calcium, magnesium, vitamin A and a bunch of other nutrients. Like I said, the whites only contain a tiny fraction of some of these nutrients.

Should You Eat the Yolks?

The answer to this question is yes and no. It really depends on a lot of factors. First, if you don't eat eggs very often, then you might as well eat the yolks. There's no sense in throwing away all those nutrients when you hardly eat eggs. Also, if eggs are the only animal product you eat, you don't really have to worry about eating too much cholesterol because you're not getting cholesterol from any other sources.

On the other hand, if you eat a lot of eggs, you should limit the number of yolks you eat per day to one or two. I'm going to assume that if you're eating eggs at least once per day, you're probably eating them for the protein because you're into bodybuilding or some other kind of sport, in which case you can eat as many whites as you want for the extra protein. If this is the case for you, I would suggest mixing one or two yolks with as many whites as you need to meet your protein requirement.

Lastly, if you're on a diet and you really need to lose weight, you should throw away the yolks. Like I said before, the whites hardly have any calories, so you can make yourself a huge egg white omelet without having to worry about going over your daily caloric limit.