Boiled, poached, fried or scrambled – which is the healthiest way to eat eggs?

We’re always cooking eggs in the IQS kitchen at breakfast time – but we must admit we haven’t thought much about the healthiest way to eggs! In this extract from Authority Nutrition, dietitian Helen West explains which way we should eat our eggs for optimum health.

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1. Choose a low-calorie cooking method.

If you are trying to cut back on calories, choose poached or boiled eggs. These cooking methods don’t add any extra fat calories, so the meal will be lower in calories than fried or scrambled eggs or an omelet.

2. Combine them with vegetables.

Eggs go really well with vegetables.This means that eating eggs is a great opportunity to boost your vegetable intake and add extra fibre and vitamins to your meal.

Some simple ideas include adding the vegetables of your choice into an omelet or scrambled eggs. Or simply cook the eggs whichever way you want and have vegetables on the side.

3. Fry them in an oil that’s stable at high temperatures.

The best oils for cooking at high heat, like when pan frying, are those that remain stable at high temperatures and don’t oxidize easily to form harmful free radicals. Examples of good choices include extra virgin olive oil and butter. Coconut oil is also a good choice for high-heat cooking, but some people may not like the taste with eggs.

4. Choose the most nutritious eggs you can afford.

The nutritional quality of eggs can be influenced by a number of factors, including the farming method and chicken’s diet. In general, pasture-raised and organic eggs are thought to be nutritionally superior to caged and conventionally produced eggs.

5. Don’t overcook them.

The longer and hotter you cook your eggs, the more nutrients you may lose. Using higher heat for longer may also increase the amount of oxidized cholesterol they contain. This is particularly true of pan frying.

The bottom line?

Overall, shorter and lower heat cooking methods cause less oxidation of cholesterol and help retain most of the nutrients in the eggs. For this reason, poached and boiled (either hard or soft) eggs may be the healthiest to eat. These cooking methods also don’t add any unnecessary calories.

All that being said, eating eggs is generally super healthy no matter which way you cook them. So you may just want to cook and eat them in the way you enjoy the most and not obsess over the small details.

Which way do you like your eggs?

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