Many restaurants now offer egg white-only breakfast dishes for health-conscious diners. For home cooking, supermarkets sell cartons of egg white products suitable for omelets, scrambled egg whites or baked foods. While some nutrients are lost when cooks separate whites from yolks, less-desirable characteristics like cholesterol and fat also disappear.
Cholesterol Considerations
The dietary cholesterol content of eggs resides solely in the yolks, making egg whites a good choice for people watching their cholesterol count. MayoClinic.com notes that daily cholesterol intake should be limited to 300 mg a day for people with no cholesterol-affected health issues, and 200 mg for people with conditions such as heart disease and diabetes. One whole egg, or one egg yolk, contains 213 mg dietary cholesterol, making it a bad choice for those watching their cholesterol, and a borderline choice for healthy people. Scrambled egg whites, egg white omelets or baked goods prepared with egg whites contribute no dietary cholesterol to your daily diet -- at least, none that comes from the egg whites themselves.
Fat and Calorie Content
A significant portion of an egg dish's fat and calories lay in the yolk. Cooked whole eggs contain about 4.76 g fat. Combining two egg whites or using ¼ cup of an egg white product yields between 0 and 1 g fat. Similarly, two cooked egg whites equal about 35 calories, compared to the 80 calories in a whole egg.
Protein
According the the USDA's nutrient database, two egg whites provide the same amount of protein as one whole egg. Although separating yolks and whites reduces the protein content of both, using two egg whites or ¼ cup egg white product yields about 7 g of protein, compared to the 6.2 g in one whole egg. Two cooked egg whites provide about 14 percent of your suggested daily intake of protein.
Other Nutrients
Some nutrients exist in both the whites and the yolks. As with protein, using two egg whites or ¼ cup egg white product will provide about the same amount of some nutrients as one whole egg. Egg whites are a good source of selenium and riboflavin, or vitamin B2.
Considerations
When you separate egg whites from egg yolks, you lose certain nutrients found only in the yolks. While avoiding the cholesterol of whole eggs may be the wisest overall choice, consider adding other foods to your diet to make up for the lost nutrients from egg yolks. According to the nonprofit nutrition website World's Healthiest Foods, egg yolks represent the best food source for the mineral choline, which helps fight joint inflammation and heart disease. Soybeans and soy products are more heart-healthy food sources of choline than egg yolks, as are peanuts, peanut butter, lentils and the natural supplement lecithin. Yolks also contribute high amounts of lutein to the diet. Lutein helps protect eyes from conditions such as macular degeneration. If you opt for an egg white-only meal plan, add lutein-rich spinach to your diet.
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