The Health Benefits Of Raw Egg Yolks

Egg yolks often are considered the bad part of the egg when it comes to health. While omelets using the whole egg appear on restaurant menus, it also is common to see egg white omelets available. Don't skip the yolk, though: Raw yolks impart a variety of health benefits, including healthy protein, fatty acids, vitamins and minerals.

Nutrition Basics

One large, raw egg yolk weighing 17 g provides 55 calories for your meal plan, or 2.7 percent of the calories you should ingest each day if you adhere to a 2,000-calorie diet. This food contains 2.7 g of protein, a macronutrient you need for energy as well as the smooth operation of your immune system. This amount does not satisfy a large portion of the 46 to 56 g you require each day. Egg yolks do not supply many carbohydrates, at 0.6 g per serving. Your meal plan should include 225 to 325 g daily.

Fats and Fatty Acids

Eat a large egg yolk and you consume 4.5 g of fat. A little under half of that. 1.6 g. is the bad type of fat, or saturated fat. In addition to fat, consuming an egg yolk gives you fatty acids. One egg yolk contains 38.8 mg of omega-3 fatty acids and 601 mg of omega-6 fatty acids. No federal guidelines govern fatty acid intake, but the American Heart Association suggests 1 g of essential fatty acids each day to combat heart disease and 2 to 4 g per day if you have high cholesterol.

Cholesterol

Raw egg yolks are high in cholesterol. Each yolk has 210 mg of this compound. Your body produces most of the cholesterol it uses to function, so a diet high in cholesterol is not particularly healthy, and you should limit your intake to 300 mg or less per day. Despite this, eggs still are good for you. The cholesterol in yolks does not immediately take up residence in your blood vessels. Harvard Medical School website notes that your heart disease risk from cholesterol consumption increases if you have diabetes, so carefully watch egg yolk consumption if you have this condition.

Minerals

A single egg yolk provides you with 14 percent of the selenium you need each day. Selenium might help prevent some types of cancer. A study published in the April 2011 issue of "Current Pharmaceutical Biotechnology" indicates that consuming more than the recommended 55 micrograms of selenium per day might decrease your risk of colorectal cancer. An egg yolk also supplies 7 percent of the daily recommended intake of phosphorus, 3 percent of the recommended zinc and iron and lesser amounts of calcium, potassium and copper.

Vitamins

Including an egg yolk in your meal plan gives you 6 percent of daily recommended amount of folate and vitamin B-12, making this food a good choice to help decrease your risk of having a child with spinal birth defects and promoting the production of DNA and RNA. You also take in 5 percent of the daily recommended intake of riboflavin, pantothenic acid, vitamin D and vitamin A. An egg yolk also provides 3 percent of the recommended amount of vitamin B-6 and 2 percent of the thiamin and vitamin E.