raw egg consumption
 

does anyone on here ever eat their eggs raw at times?

ive been contemplating this if there is any change in benefit to eating them raw... or in cases in shakes with powders, coconut milk or the like...

as i know cooking can change the molecular structure of them. i know they wouldnt be as tasty w/out cooking...

anyway im just wondering about thsi and curious to know HOW a person eats them if they eat them raw at all.

I eat raw egg yolks all the time in coconut milk - blueberry smoothies.

According to Dr Eades - raw egg yolks don't have the same impact of cholesterol. Something new that I have learned once again.

Yes, I add them to protein shakes and make my own mayonnaise. I've never encountered a health issue.

However, I only use either organic or free range, never, ever caged eggs.

Hi Shyvas
yes i totally agree, i only buy organic free range eggs also.
i know some folks might get all up in arms about salmonella but i think it is a matter of how fresh they are and handling of them. that doesnt bother me.
ive never consumed them raw but im very much interested in trying.
I've just completed my first week of being sugar free and grain free and i am feeling very good.
its nice for once to actually be satisfied with nourishing and filling foods that dont jerk my serotonin levels and cravings around.

i wonder if a person's immune system is strong and doesnt have the other stuff in their system, if theyre able to resist any type of bacteria like salmonella. not sure about that... Hmmmm

ooh that sounds yummy!

i had fresh blueberries last night drizzled with coconut milk! Such a treat!

I personally think raw egg yolks are WAY tastier than cooked. I never eat raw whites though, its a texture thing. I sometimes can stand at my counter and just eat yolk after yolk. I either save the whites to add to my dog's homemade food or I just pitch them. I have made coconut milk egg nog with a bit of raw honey and nutmeg and that is really good, it's like custard! :yum:

Any danger of salmonella comes from contact of the egg with the shell. If you are worried, just dip your egg briefly in boiling water to sanitize them.
I drink my raw eggs in a protein shake.

If you get eggs from pastured hens (or your own hens) you don't need to worry about salmonella.

The yolks have a few benefits when eaten raw, but the whites are actually less nutritious when they're raw. I don't eat the whites at all, but I cook them before I feed them back to my chickens.

This is what the CDC says:

How eggs become contaminated

Unlike eggborne salmonellosis of past decades, the current epidemic is due to intact and disinfected grade A eggs. Salmonella enteritidis silently infects the ovaries of healthy appearing hens and contaminates the eggs before the shells are formed.

Most types of Salmonella live in the intestinal tracts of animals and birds and are transmitted to humans by contaminated foods of animal origin. Stringent procedures for cleaning and inspecting eggs were implemented in the 1970s and have made salmonellosis caused by external fecal contamination of egg shells extremely rare. However, unlike eggborne salmonellosis of past decades, the current epidemic is due to intact and disinfected grade A eggs. The reason for this is that Salmonella enteritidis silently infects the ovaries of healthy appearing hens and contaminates the eggs before the shells are formed.

Although most infected hens have been found in the northeastern United States, the infection also occurs in hens in other areas of the country. In the Northeast, approximately one in 10,000 eggs may be internally contaminated. In other parts of the United States, contaminated eggs appear less common. Only a small number of hens seem to be infected at any given time, and an infected hen can lay many normal eggs while only occasionally laying an egg contaminated with the Salmonella bacterium.

Salmonella

According to Eades in Thin So Fast, the egg needs to be immersed in boiling water for 30 seconds. It doen't start cooking if you take it out right at 30 seconds.

For about 3 months, I swallowed a glass of raw eggs for breakfast every morning. The taste is not strong, but it gave me problems in the toilet if you know what I mean.

I never tried the 30 seconds idea. That might work better.

in the original recipe for Caesar's salad dressing, a raw egg is always used.

Disinfecting the shell will not help if the salmonella is inside the egg. However, the risk of your getting a contaminated egg is very small. See the CDC site previously quoted.

I'm pretty sure I would barf if I ever ate a raw egg.just sayin. I'm big on textures/mouth feel, and I just think it would be slimy and cold.

I do however, enjoy the yolks in my fried eggs rare. Capmikee, why are egg whites MORE nutritious when cooked? I can see how cooking something might make it less nutritions, but how can adding heat make something more nutritious?

I think most people I've known who eat raw eggs, and I sometimes have, have always had them IN something, not plain! Like in a smoothie for example.

Cooking makes lots of things more nutritious. The two main reasons: heat destroys some antinutrients, and it helps to break down proteins.

Egg whites have a protein called avidin, which binds to the B vitamin biotin and keeps it from being absorbed. Cooking destroys avidin and makes the biotin more available. There may be another reason, but I can't remember it.

I go through phases where I will stand at the sink, crack open an egg, let the shell and white fall into the sink and pop the creamy yolk in my mouth. I may do 3-4 yolks at one standing. I do this for maybe 3 days in a row and then I wont want to do it again for maybe a month. Yolks are definitely NOT slimy at all, if you make sure to drain all the white off of them. They are like a yummy unsweetened vanilla-ish custard! :yum: :thup:

Gosh why am I grossed out, when I eat eggs regularly? :lol:

There are issues with raw egg white and the absortion of some vitamins. Avidin is a glycoprotein, which is found in raw egg whites, and blocks the uptake of Vitamin B6 and Vitamin H (Biotin) causing a vitamin deficiency (it binds to Biotin and iron making them unavailable). You must cook/pasteurize the egg white to neutralize the Avidin and allow your body to safely digest the protein and utilize all its amino acids.

From http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=540518

I can't stand to have any white attached to my yolk, and it's hard to break that protein thread when it's raw. I usually soft-boil my eggs when I want a runny yolk. It's such a great experience to taste the yolk in its pure state, but there's an amazing variety of flavor. Some yolks - even from supposedly really good eggs - are just disappointing. Others are delicious. I had a really good one a couple days ago.

I've been eating a lot of hard-boiled yolks lately. It's such a convenient snack.

I know what you mean about the white being gross. I even will separate the gross membrane thing from the yolk and pull it out of my mouth (definitely not a pretty sight :o )

My co-op has these local eggs called Fred's eggs that they only have a few times a year. They are from Ameracauna (sp) chickens and have greenish blue shells. The yolk from these are amazing! dark orange and very creamy. Im seriously considering getting a few of these chickens!

We get some of those blue eggs sometimes. I think the quality of the yolk depends more on what the chickens eat, though. I bet Fred feeds his birds very well.

I have them raw all the time in shakes. I have been doing this for decades so no one scares me about salmonella. I know that wasn't your focus. It's just what you usually hear.

I think they are better for you raw. That's what I've heard, anyway.

Please do not eat raw eggs!! Samonella, if a hen has it, is int he oviduct and therefore inside the egg shell. Heating the egg for 30 seconds does not kill the bacteria. Nor does sanitising the outside. Organic, free range, these terms do NOT indicate free of samonella. The poultry farms have worked hard to eradicate this, but it still occurs. Eating a raw egg has it's risks. Some farms are tested samonella free. But not many. KNow you are taking a risk to eat raw eggs. I have given up my chocolate malt shake with eggs! :( But not an occassional bite of cookie dough! Know the risks.

No raw eggs for me. My SIL is the foremost expert on Salmonella in the U.S. and she does not recommend it.

Here is a link to an article about her research

http://www.thepoultrysite.com/artic...ous-to-virulent


I have never let my kids even eat raw cake batter or cookie dough because of the raw egg in it. I've had salmonella before from chicken and believe me, if you ever have it you will never take even the slightest chance of getting sick with it again. It is not something you get over in 24 hours... You are very very sick for a long time. I was sick off and on for months after having a bad bout of it when I was in college.

Just saw this thread for the first time. I have a dear friend who is a county extension home economist, and I got this information from her. I have my own hens at home - spoiled rotten they are - so I never worried much about my eggs, but I'm prone to guilt, and would feel awful if my homemade mayo made someone in my family sick.

So....here is how to pasteurize eggs at home. I've done it, and they do get hot all the way through (paranoid me has cracked some and temped the center of the yolk with a probe thermometer) They feel really hot when you first take them from the water, but they are not cooked at all at this temperature.

I'm copying-pasting my own post on another forum:

My friend the food safety lady posted about how to pasteurize eggs.

Basically, you put enough water to cover the egg/s in a pan and bring it to 140 degrees. Put the egg/s in, monitor the temp as keep it as close to 140 as possible for about 5 minutes (to allow temp to penetrate through the egg). Use or chill in cold water, and then refrigerate.

I tried it yesterday, and when I took the egg out of the water, it felt so hot - I was sure I'd have a partly cooked egg. It was actually perfectly raw, and worked great for my second batch of mayo.

And then, if you want to make mayo, eat them raw, whatever, you can without worry. Hope this helps. :)

catinhat: I wish I had known this when my kids were little! I could have done this and let them eat the cookie dough!

Maybe next time my dh makes chocolate chip cookies he can do this and they can FINALLY have some raw cookie dough!

I do know that my SIL told me that you really don't have to heat salmonella that high to kill it.

You don't have to heat it all that high...but that 5 minutes is important. My friend said 2 minutes, and I was doubtful that the heat could penetrate that fast. So I tested it. We came up with 5 minutes (eventually) and had scrambled eggs that night for supper, since I'd opened so many with my experimenting. :)

You can do one or a dozen, and put them in the fridge for future use. I do not pasteurize all my eggs...just the ones I use to make mayo.

I like them blended with water and a packet of splenda, very milk-like.

Lately I've been compromising and just separating out the whites, cooking them in the microwave, then mixing in the yolks. Totally foolproof, compared to soft-boiling.