With all the media attention on cholesterol, consumers often lose sight of the fact that eggs are a nutrient rich, affordable contributor to a healthy diet. Not only do eggs contain the highest quality source of protein available but they also contain almost every essential vitamin and mineral needed by humans [Sorry, no vitamin C in eggs. Chickens, unlike humans, can produce their own vitamin C and don’t need to get it from the diet.]. In fact, egg protein is of such high quality that it is used as the standard by which other proteins are compared. Eggs have a biological value (efficacy with which protein is used for growth) of 93.7%. Comparable values are 84.5% for milk, 76% for fish, and 74.3% for beef. Eggs really are the best protein money can buy, and it has all those other valuable vitamins and minerals too.

 

Eggs have long been an important contributor to the nutritional quality of the American diet. While eggs provide only 1.3% of the average caloric intake, they are so nutrient dense that they contribute a great deal more nutrition than calories: 6% of the RDA for riboflavin, 5% of the folate, 4% of the vitamin E and vitamin A, and almost 4% of the protein. When an item provides more nutrients than calories to the average American diet it deserves to be called “nutrient dense” and deserves to be part of everyone’s diet.

 

Eggs not only make a contribution to the nutrient value of the American diet, they also make a major contribution to the affordability of the diet. At $1.00 per dozen large eggs, the consumer pays only 66.5 cents per pound for a nutrient rich source of highest quality protein available. For more eggs facts, please visit the American Egg Board’s World Wide Web Site and check out the Eggcyclopedia.

(Courtesy to http://www.enc-online.org/eggnutr.htm)