Raw eggs. Safe?

[Patrick McIntosh]

I'd really like to add raw eggs to my PWO shake. Someone told me, however, that bacteria can penetrate the shell therefore cooking them is the only way one should eat them. Is this true?

And while on the topic of eggs, what would be a good guess at the % of lost protein/amino acids when an egg is cooked?

[Garrett Smith]

Patrick,
I've never had a problem with raw eggs. Here's the rule: healthy chickens lay healthy eggs, and vice versa. Buy good eggs--last night I bought organic cage-free omega-3 eggs. I wouldn't think twice about eating them raw (even though I bought them for Paleo pancakes).

As to your question about protein lost, I can't say. There is likely little to no loss of amino acids. Some of the proteins will denature, that doesn't mean the amino acids go anywhere. My suggestion is in general with eggs to cook the yolk (the most nutritious part with the most fragile components) as little as possible--ie. over easy, sunny side up, soft boiled.

[Patrick McIntosh]

Makes sense to me, thanks.

[Michael Hill]

I too, have never had a problem with raw eggs. One thing to remember when purchasing them in a store is reach in the back to get the freshest ones. When I buy them at a big box supermarket (organic cage-free omega-3 of course), 9 out of 10 times the cartons in the back have a use by date of at least a week or two later. Also, I don't know if it matters, but I am in the habit washing the egg in hot soapy water also.

FWIW, I have had food poisoning. I got it form eating undercooked hamburger in a resturant. Apparently part of the grill was not hot because the burger was hot and cooked 2/3, but the other 1/3 was basically raw. I didn't realize it until after I had consumed a bit of the raw part. This was saturday evening, I left work on Monday midmorning and spent the next 48 hours in the worst pain in my life. I was in more pain than with anything else I have ever experienced including the flu, wisdom tooth removal, broken bones, getting punched in the face, etc. Point being, if I really believed there was more than a remote chance from raw eggs I wouldn't be eatting them, but I do eat them.

[Garrett Smith]

Also, one other thing.

I used to do raw eggs Rocky-style, 6 eggs in 6 swallows. For a little while doing that, I would get an episode of diarrhea about 15 minutes after that. I never thought it was food poisoning, as it happened every time and I felt fine otherwise.

I talked to my Traditional Chinese Medicine teacher, we basically figured out that the combination of refrigerator-cold eggs, at 6 at a time, was too much "cold" for my system at once. I found that if the eggs were room temp or if I did fewer of them, I never had the problem again.

Just wanted to throw that out there, not all diarrhea from raw eggs is food poisoning...

Also, washing the eggs prior is not a bad idea. I've never done it, nor will I likely start, but it is a further protective measure if one wants to do it.

I'll start eating more raw stuff in the spring and summer. I like warm meat and BBQing in the winter.

[Chris Forbis]

http://www.13.waisays.com/egg-yolk.htm

Useful if one wishes to eat raw eggs.