Paleo Diet and Paleolithic Diet Questions & Answers

Question

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It might not seem paleo to skip the white, but from my own experience raw egg whites are not pleasant to consume, whereas the yolk is great. Given that we know grok would avoid and even throw away lean meat, it is plausible that grok may have skipped the whites sometimes also. I also doubt that Grok was able to eat the large amounts of eggs that many of us enjoy today.

Regardless of proper re-enactment we should add our modern knowledge to this decision. The WAPF is strongly anti-whites, particularly for raw egg whites (they contain avidin which prevents absorption of biotin). Here is Chris MasterJohn's comparison.

You can probably tell what my practices are by this question, but I always like to hear other's ideas. What do you think is best?

1) Eat the whole egg raw 2) cook and eat the whites 3) throw out the whites

If your answer is 3) throw them out, you may be interested in this thread

edited Mar 18 2010 at 0:42

Mady
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asked Mar 16 2010 at 2:57

HealthRediscovery
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A higher preference for organ meats certainty does not translate into avoiding/throwing away lean muscle meat! Any non-mega-fauna sized animal could probably easily be consumed by a small band of hunter gatherers, in its entirety! – Cave Man Mind Mar 16 2010 at 3:07

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This has little to do with organ meat. Normally lean animals were avoided if possible, but sometimes they would end up being killed and discarded westonaprice.org/… Protein poisoning was a real threat for those living off the land that ate lean meat. – HealthRediscovery Mar 16 2010 at 5:50

David Moss · Accepted Answer · 2010-03-16 19:03:02Z UTC

I don't think there's any uniquely WAPF reasons to avoid egg white (such as avidin), it's just a matter of avoiding protein itself. The avidin is pretty quickly degraded through cooking.

People on a hyperlipid/OD 80%+ fat diet might certainly need to throw away egg whites. It's not that plenty of protein is bad (I eat more than a pound of meat a day and that's only abiout 17.5% calories from protein), it's just that the egg whites are nutritionally empty source of protein, compared to meat.

Ideally, for health, whatever your protein level, you would therefore definitely throw away the whites and eat the same amount of protein from some meat. Of course, this is going to be too inconvenient and wasteful for some (I need all the cheap protein I can get), and Grok would doubtless have eaten the white for exactly the same reasons (even though egg whites would never factor in a purely optimal diet).

Louisa · Answer 2 · 2010-03-17 10:41:37Z UTC

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Why waste ANY of the egg? Eat the yolk and then put the white into stock to clarify it or the white plus the crunched up shell into chicken consomme (soup). The white traps the impurities, which is then later scooped off the top to leave a clear stock/soup underneath (eggshell adds calcium to the broth - one whole medium sized eggshell yields about 750 - 800 mgs of calcium plus other micro-elements: magnesium, boron, copper, iron, manganese, molybdenum, sulphur, silicon, and zinc; 27 in all).

edited Mar 17 2010 at 10:41

answered Mar 16 2010 at 18:36

Louisa
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Thanks, I have heard about stock clarification, but not that there are actual health benefits to it- do you have any more resources for finding out about that? Do you store whites in the freezer? – HealthRediscovery Mar 16 2010 at 21:03

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Just for clarification, you just cook the eggshells? Not eat them? – puddlefoot Mar 17 2010 at 0:54

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Yes puddlefoot- the eggshells are strained out along with the egg white and impurities. I am not sure how long you'd need to simmer the stock to release nutrients from the shells prior to straining. – henny Mar 17 2010 at 5:20

@HR - I have been searching for a recipe for chicken consomme on the net, and just cannot find an authentic french one, the way I do it, so I am going to write the recipe on my blog - will post the link here when I have done it! @PF + Anna- yes, you simmer the eggshells in the broth for an hour or you can make a powder from them and eat that like a 'calcium supplement' I will write about that too and post the link for you here. – Louisa Mar 17 2010 at 8:45

I just did some more research and found out that one egg shell contains 1800 mgs of calcium, it is one tsp of egg shell powder that contains 750-800 mgs calcium. Sorry for the confusion.... – Louisa Mar 17 2010 at 9:56

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henny · Answer 3 · 2010-03-16 04:03:33Z UTC

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I double doubt that a hungry Grok, upon finding a mess of eggs would throw anything out- he would eat the whole shebang!

answered Mar 16 2010 at 4:03

henny

You are assuming he is hungry- we also must consider (the more likely) scenario that times were good and food was abundant. – HealthRediscovery Mar 16 2010 at 5:52

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I get a really funny picture in my mind of a guy in a loin cloth tenderly separating eggs into separate bowls when I think about this question. Kind of like the first cooking show of all time. – henny Mar 16 2010 at 13:08

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Where imagination fails us, re-enactment can help. I just did this: 1) Break an egg on your tooth towards the upper half of the egg. 2) Open it up from that point, not caring that some of the white will spill out. 3) Then the yolk will be floating on the white in the lower half and can easily be slurped without consuming much white. I didn't even half to think about separating the white, just about trying to consume the yolk. It was at least as fast as consuming the whole egg. – HealthRediscovery Mar 16 2010 at 15:56

That's good HealthRediscovery! Very good! I gave it a point! – henny Mar 16 2010 at 16:08

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By the way, I add the crunched up eggshells to my compost heap or give them to neighbouring chickens so they are not wasted either. – henny Mar 17 2010 at 13:56

Diana Hsieh · Answer 4 · 2010-03-17 00:16:57Z UTC

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If you like, you can use egg whites to wash your hair. I've only done it once -- otherwise, I'm no-poo (meaning BS+ACV) -- but it seemed to work pretty well.

answered Mar 17 2010 at 0:16

Diana Hsieh
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But don't rinse with hot water! – henny Mar 17 2010 at 2:25

this is great, I am going to try it....how does it leave your hair Diana? – Louisa Mar 17 2010 at 9:46

ScottMGS · Answer 5 · 2010-03-16 16:40:51Z UTC

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Aren't the eggs of many wild birds are significantly smaller than a chicken egg? If so, separating the yolk may not have been worth the trouble. If that's the case then they'd either eat the whole egg when hungry or go without when not.

answered Mar 16 2010 at 16:40

ScottMGS
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There is no way in this world a H&G would separate an egg! That idea is laughable! – Cave Man Mind Mar 18 2010 at 0:45

Cave Man Mind · Answer 6 · 2010-03-16 03:14:34Z UTC

I think the only good argument for avoiding egg whites is to minimise your protein intake if you are eating a lot of eggs daily. Despite consuming a lot of animal products, it seems most modern hunter gatherer societies have a low to moderate protein consumption (15% to 35%). There is also some potential longevity benefits from consuming protein towards the lower end of this scale.

On a holistic side though, it seems quite un-paleo to me! If eggs whites were a problem for me I would simply consume less eggs (going with your argument Grok never had access to just large quantities).

So I am going with (2)!

kaciula · Answer 7 · 2010-03-18 11:10:42Z UTC

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It's absurd to throw the egg whites. The problem with the western world is that we have too much food available and have a waste mentality. If you're worried about too much protein, eat LESS eggs.

answered Mar 18 2010 at 11:10

kaciula
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Morrigan · Answer 8 · 2011-02-11 08:29:10Z UTC

Egg whites are excellent with egg yolks ;o)

Use them to make thin flavourless crepes (you can do this with whole eggs too but you get the flavour of the egg yolk) as a carb-free base for desserts, wraps etc.

If egg whites have too little fat, whack in a little heavy cream and voila....

Egg Whites - throw them out?

8 Answers