Happy National Egg Day! Eggs are one of our favorite proteins, not only for their versatility but for all of the great health benefits they have. Let’s take a look at what those are:

1. Eggs are high in nutrients

Eggs are one of the most nutritious foods that we can add to our diets. They’re high in vitamins A, B5, B12, and B2, folate, phosphorus, and selenium. They also have a good amount of protein at 6 grams, found mostly in the white part of the egg. This is all while being relatively low in calories, at 77 calories per egg.

2. Benefits “good” cholesterol

We have both good and bad cholesterol. Good cholesterol is called HDL, and bad is called LDL. We obviously want to limit the amount of LDL in our diet. We get both from eggs, but the positive far outweighs the negative because we obtain more HDL than LDL.

3. High in choline

Choline is a water-soluble vitamin. It’s often coupled with B vitamins, and our bodies need it to help build cell membranes and create signaling molecules in our brain. One egg contains 27% of our recommended daily value of choline with 147 mg.

4. Lowers risk of heart disease

This also goes along with LDL cholesterol. The high amount of LDL cholesterol is linked to heart disease, especially when people have higher amounts of small, dense LDL particles. We know that eggs raise LDL a small amount, but eggs also decrease the amount of smaller, dense LDL particles in the body.

5. Contains all the essential amino acids

We’ve written on D2D before about how we need all nine essential amino acids to have a healthy diet. These nine amino acids come from protein, mostly animal proteins. Eggs also contain all nine amino acids, making them a quick and easy source.