Don’t give up on egg yolks — they have lots of the nutrients you need

Browsing through recipes, my eyes are often drawn to ones that claim to be healthier. This is usually accomplished by replacing either high fat or high sugar items with low fat or low sugar alternatives.

Most of the time, if the dish still tastes yummy, I agree with the suggestions. But some substitutions leave this dietitian scratching her head.

Many recipes suggest replacing one whole egg with two egg whites. Why is the egg yolk still getting negative press? The quick, uninformed answer is cholesterol and saturated fat but that would be wrong.

The 2015 Dietary Guidelines stated cholesterol is not a nutrient of concern for over-consumption. Often foods that are high in cholesterol like beef and some dairy products are high in saturated fat that does raise blood cholesterol.

That is not the case with eggs. One egg has 1.6 grams of saturated fat. For someone eating 2,000 calories a day, their saturated fat intake should be less than 10% of calories, or 20 grams or less of saturated fat. One egg has 78 calories and two egg whites have 34, not a game changer.

Protein is about the same. I am making the case for yolks since this is where the nutrients reside. For immunity, egg yolks contain vitamin D; for the eyes, leutin and zeaxanthin; and for the brain, choline.

There are too many other nutrients to list here.

The other “healthier” option I question is chicken breasts over thighs. Saturated fat is the culprit when it comes to raising blood cholesterol levels. A 3-ounce chicken breast has 1 gram of saturated fat and a chicken thigh has 2 grams (both without skin). Both fit easily into a diet low in saturated fat.

A chicken thigh has more total fat than a breast but that’s why they are moister and harder to dry out when cooking. And that other fat is unsaturated. Go with the cut that tastes best to you because both are in the same ballpark of health.