Originally Posted by Marauder_79

What do you think of drinking plain egg whites straight from the carton?

Originally Posted by chuckufarley

I thought you had to cook eggs to give them a protien value. I think I read it on this web site.

Originally Posted by TCD

I wonder how much effect the core heat of the body has on helping "cook" the eggs somewhat. I imagine it does have some sort of effect.

I regularly throw 4-5 raw egg whites into my casein/whey shake. I don't eat raw yolkes though.

Originally Posted by Emma-Leigh

Ummmm... Well.... If yur body where warm enough to cook the egg then no eggies would turn into chicken (and just think - that would mean no chickens... which would no more eggies!!!) because it would mean that every mummy chicken sitting on a clutch of eggies would be cooking her babies!

It would also mean that you would 'cook' yourself... (cooking eggs is essentially denaturing the protein/changing it's tertiary structure... So, if this occured at body temperature, then you would also denature all the proteins in your body - which would kind of suck - seeing that you would die ).

Originally Posted by dakota

what a fucn smartass. i think its something to think about. when eggs are pasturized(heated) theyre not cooked(like in frying pan), theyre still liquid. so, your bodyheat prob. does help digest!

Originally Posted by dakota

what a fucn smartass. i think its something to think about. when eggs are pasturized(heated) theyre not cooked(like in frying pan), theyre still liquid. so, your bodyheat prob. does help digest!

Originally Posted by Vieope

Originally Posted by chuckufarley

I thought you had to cook eggs to give them a protien value. I think I read it on this web site.

Originally Posted by dakota

what a fucn smarta**. i think its something to think about. when eggs are pasturized(heated) theyre not cooked(like in frying pan), theyre still liquid. so, your bodyheat prob. does help digest!

Originally Posted by Emma-Leigh

Yes, different proteins denature at different heats/unstable at different heats - depending on their structure/how they are made and the biological matrix they are in at a given time - (eg: if they are PART of something like in a peice of meat or in milk, or if they are isolated proteins, such as that in a whey powder) - but the fact remains that most proteins WILL NOT denature/cook at normal biological temperatures - the reason why biological temperatures are so important in life is because this is where you get a good balance between rate of enzyme activity (so reactions proceed without too much energy needed to catalise them) and protein stability... (along with a WHOLE heap of other things)....

Originally Posted by TCD

Playing devil's advocate here - why don't we have to heat up milk to make it digestable?

Originally Posted by dakota

what a fucn smartass. i think its something to think about. when eggs are pasturized(heated) theyre not cooked(like in frying pan), theyre still liquid. so, your bodyheat prob. does help digest!

Originally Posted by Vieope

Originally Posted by Emma-Leigh

Some proteins require denaturing to be fully digested, whilst others do not. It depends on the secondary/tertiary structure of the protein and how easily your digestive enzymes can tackle them.

You can think of it similarly to why some starchy carbs have a higher GI whilst others have a lower GI - one of the main reasons is the linkage found between the glucose molecules in the food - if there is branching of the glucose chain, then the starch is harder to break down and the GI decreases.



Sure... here are the two I know of by Pieter Evenepoel:
1. Digestibility of Cooked and Raw Egg Protein in Humans as Assessed by Stable Isotope Techniques

2. Amount and fate of egg protein escaping assimilation in the small intestine of humans

But, another reason why you want to avoid too many raw eggs is Biotin deficiency, and an article on this is Here.

There is also one from an e-medicine article here. It has the following information: "Eating raw egg whites: Eating raw egg whites is commonly believed to be the only way to develop biotin deficiency. Although this is not true, consuming raw egg whites is a relatively certain (and quick) way to develop biotin deficiency."

And just a cool article on eggs if you are interested (nothing to do with the topic really) is this one here.


Actually - it is a pretty good method. Here are some articles on the method development and the validity of the tests:
1. 13C-egg white breath test: a non-invasive test of pancreatic trypsin activity in the small intestine

2. Production of Egg Proteins, Enriched with L-Leucine-13C1, for the Study of Protein Assimilation in Humans Using the Breath Test Technique

3. Validation of a New Test Meal for a Protein Digestion Breath Test in Humans

4. C13 Breath Tests

And here is a general article about some other methods they use:
Approaches to Quantifying Protein Metabolism in Response to Nutrient Ingestion


If you check the methods of the appropriate study it will say how they did it... But I assume it would have been collected with an ileal tube (which is, as it's name suggests, a tube they place into the ileum - or the last part of the small intestine - to collect the fluid in it).