You just need a loaf of bread, or a gallon of milk. But it's not that easy is it? Upon entering the grocery store you'll find dozens if not hundreds of products available in the category you are looking for. Bread is not just bread anymore, and milk is not just milk. And the same thing applies to eggs. An egg is an egg. Or at least that is what I used to think when I was a child. But now we have countless products when all we really want is just an egg. And so it comes to this...what's with all the fuss about eggs and egg substitutes? Does it make a difference which one you select, why care about it?
Let's first look at the nutritional information between an egg substitute like Egg Beaters and a normal egg. As you can see, yes, the egg beater has less calories, fat, saturated fat, cholesterol, with the same amount of protein.
From this information I would definitely choose the egg beater over the egg. That is definitely the top choice as of yet. But you have to take a closer look! It's not just about the nutritional information anymore these days. You can obviously see that an egg is just an egg, but the Egg Beaters is held in a carton which means only one thing. Processing. The food has been processed, it is not in its natural form anymore. So the thought changes from what the Egg Beaters don't have, to thinking about what it does have now because of the processing. Let's now look at the ingredient list to see which one comes out on top.
Ingredient List for an Egg: Eggs contain 1 ingredient:
Egg
Ingredient List for Egg Beaters: Egg beaters contain 20 ingredients:
Egg Whites, Less than 1%: Natural Flavor, Color (Includes Beta Carotene),Spices, Salt, Onion Powder, Vegetable Gums (Xanthan Gum, Guar Gum),Maltodextrin. Vitamins and Minerals: Calcium Sulfate, Iron (Ferric Phosphate), Vitamin E (Alpha Tocopherol Acetate), Zinc Sulfate, Calcium Pantothenate, Vitamin B12, Vitamin B2 (Riboflavin), Vitamin B1 (Thiamine Mononitrate), Vitamin B6 (Pyridoxine Hydrochloride), Folic Acid, Biotin, Vitamin D3
From a quick glance these ingredients don't look bad. They include egg whites, natural flavors, vitamins/minerals, and spices. But you have to look even closer.
First of all, the natural flavors are anything but natural. According to the Natural Health News & Scientific Discoveries website, "There are also plenty of "food products" on the shelves that read "all natural" on the label, but they still contain large amounts of synthetic, laboratory-concocted food agents, many of which cause diseases and disorders." I have even read that this natural flavoring can contain MSG. This website also describes that "Monosodium Glutamate is a neurotoxin that can be legally hidden from you and/or be labeled "natural flavors" in the ingredients list. MSG is not a natural flavor - in fact, it can cause brain lesions, neuro-endocrine disorders, and neurodegenerative disease in humans...The FDA does not require that any source of MSG be identified... Yet in hundreds of studies around the world, scientists are creating obese mice using MSG because it triples the amount of insulin the pancreas creates, causing rats (and perhaps humans) to become obese. This is what the FDA calls natural. There's even a name for the fat rodents that eat this "Natural Flavor" additive: they're called "MSG-Treated Rats." Not only is MSG scientifically proven to cause obesity, it is an addictive substance. Since its introduction into the American food supply 50 years ago, MSG has been added in larger and larger doses to processed meals, soups, chips, and fast foods. The FDA has set no limits on how much of it can be added to food." Makes you think right?
Now what about the vitamins/minerals? Some of you may not realize that vitamins and minerals may need help
to be absorbed and used properly in order to work. For example, Vitamin C increases the absorption of iron. Fat-
soluble vitamins (A, D, E, and K) are better absorbed with a meal higher in fat. And calcium needs to be
combined with Vitamin D. Fooducate explains the problem with Egg Beaters. It says that "There are a whole bunch of added vitamins and minerals that try to mimic what was lost with the removal of the egg yolk. For example a single egg yolk contains 13% of the DV for vitamin A. Egg beaters throws in 15%. The problem with this nutrient specific approach is that science has yet to identify hundreds of other nutrients and their interaction amongst each other when naturally present in a food. Selecting a few nutrients and focusing on them instead of on a whole food is part of a larger problem in the US food food system today."
Xantham Gum is another one that sounds really scary, but this very popular food ingredient has not been known to cause serious issues as of yet. It mostly is known to cause bloating or an upset stomach. What is it? According to Fooducate, "Xanthan gum is made by fermenting corn sugar with bacteria..It is the same bacterial that creates black spots on broccoli and cauliflower. The result is a slimy goo that is then dried up and ground into a fine white powder." It is used an emulsifier or an ingredient that blends different ingredients and helps them stay blended while it sits on a shelf waiting for you to purchase it. Think of mayonnaise. The reason all the ingredients stay blended is due to an emulsifier. Xanthan Gum also acts as a thickener. In a normal egg, the egg yolk acts as a truly natural thickener, but Egg Beaters takes out the egg yolk in order to reduce the calories, fat, saturated fat, and cholesterol. All of these lower numbers makes the public turn to these products instead because the product is "healthy".
So in my eyes, the EGG WINS!
But my thought on it all is this. Why would you eat a product that was created in a science lab when you could eat a product that was created perfectly? Smile frequently, laugh often, and eat real food! So choose the egg-ceptional, not the egg-ception.
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