Egg Yolk vs Egg White: An Eggs-cellent Dilemma

I'm learning many lessons on my "get healthy" journey and this week I'm learning about eggs.  The other morning I made a healthy breakfast burrito consisting of approximately 1.5 whole eggs, 3/4 cup canned diced potatoes, lean smoked ham (which is surprisingly low in fat and calories although a tad bit high in sodium), and1/4 cup reduced fat cheddar cheese, all inside a tortilla.  I seasoned it with Mrs. Dash of course, added no salt, and cooked it in reduced fat cooking spray.  It was delicious and I was fairly proud of myself for coming up with this concoction, but, when I entered my yummy breakfast burrito into MyFitnessPal via my phone later in the day, I was quite surprised to see big red numbers pop up.  See, as long as you're under your goal for a certain area the numbers remain black, but if you go over they turn red...and you're in big trouble and The Diet Police come after you...*grin*

Anyway, the big red numbers weren't just 5 or 10 over my goal...it said I was 300 OVER!  So I look across to see what I'm over on and....it's cholesterol.  Now, I don't have a cholesterol problem, but I still want to be consuming too much of any one particular thing. Then I had to go on the hunt to figure out what caused this overage which is when I remember the eggs...

One whole egg contains nearly two-thirds of the daily recommended intake of 300mg of cholesterol (source), so if you eat just ONE egg, you've consumed almost your entire daily limit of cholesterol in just one sitting!

In general I thought eggs were pretty good for you, which they kind of are, but herein lies the dilemma.  Let's break it down, shall we?


                                  Egg White      Egg Yolk
Calories                            17                 59
Fat (g)                              0.6               4.51
Saturated fat (g)                0.0               1.6
Carbohydrates (g)            0 .24             0.61
Protein (g)                        3.6                2.7
Sodium (mg)                     55                 8
Calcium (mg)                    2.3               21.9
Vitamin D (IU)                  0.0                18
Folate (mcg)                     1.3               24.8
Source

So, while the egg white has less calories, less fat, and no saturated fat, the egg yolk provides all the calcium, vitamin D, and folate, while containing less sodium and also providing Omega-3 fatty acids.  So how do you decide what to eat?

The same way you decide what to eat the rest of the time: anything can be fine in moderation.  So for now, egg whites the majority of the time and egg yolks/whole eggs...in moderation.

This morning's ham and egg whites with tomatos and onions