Eggs are high in cholesterol, and experts are in agreement that a diet high in cholesterol can contribute to elevated blood cholesterol levels. Fortunately, not all eggs are created equal, so limiting your cholesterol does not mean that you have to permanently eliminate eggs from your diet. Cholesterol levels in eggs depend on their size, how they are served, which parts you use, and even the dietary habits of the chicken who laid them.
Step 1
Use the size of the egg as a rough guideline. Large whole eggs contain approximately 215mg, while medium eggs have 185mg of cholesterol.
Step 2
Determine if you need the whole, egg, the yolk or just the whites. If you can get away with just the whites, they contain absolutely no cholesterol. In fact, all of an egg's cholesterol comes from the yolk.
Step 3
Consider purchasing the more expensive eggs that come from free-range chickens, which are allowed to feed on pasture rather than being fed in cages. According to the 2007 Mother Earth News egg-testing project, these eggs contain up to a third less cholesterol than those of chickens raised in cages.
Step 4
Buy reduced cholesterol eggs. These eggs come from chickens which have been fed all-vegetable diets with supplemental canola oil as a source of fat. Drgrourmet.com notes that these newer feed mixtures appear to raise the amount of Omega-3 fats in eggs.
Step 5
Determine how you plan on using the egg. Hard-boiling a 100g egg raises its cholesterol levels to over 400, according to fatfreekitchen.com, and poaching, scrambling and frying also add cholesterol.
Tips and Warnings
- If you want to reduce cholesterol, improvise with two egg whites or 1/4 cup cholesterol-free egg substitute for every egg needed in a recipe. Particularly in baking, the substitutions have little to no effect on the taste.
- If you have cardiovascular disease, diabetes or high LDL cholesterol, its important to limit your cholesterol to no more than 200mg per day. This means if you eat an egg, you will need to eliminate or ration other cholesterol sources for the rest of the day.
