Do you relish the entire egg or are you a “whites” only kind of guy or gal? If you are a yolk skipper, perhaps after reading this blog post, you will reconsider, because those of you who skip your yolks and only eat the egg whites are missing out! First off, the yellow egg yolk contains most of the nutritional value of the egg, including not only the cholesterol, but also the vitamins and minerals contained in an egg. Furthermore, egg yolks from Free Range Chickens (note this is different from “cage free”) have high levels of omega-3s, because the chickens eat lots of grass, greens and bugs, which is their natural diet (versus corn, chicken feed and more corn). I’d also take a gander to say that true Free Range chicken eggs and yolks have a higher nutritional value than store bought Free Range eggs.

Note the color difference in the 4 eggs photographed above. The three lemon yellow eggs are from a carton of Cyd’s Nest Fresh Organic Free Roaming Eggs — the best eggs that I can find in a store. The very yellow — almost orange egg in the top left corner is not store bought. This egg is from the happy Free Range hens that I get from Ollin Farms. The Ollin hens have a large outdoor enclosure with access to grass and bugs, in addition to their feed. I don’t have a lab in my kitchen, but I’d bet that if tested, this little guy from Ollin would come up high in Omega-3s, but also B-vitamins, and minerals such as iron — all three of which may contribute to the yolk’s rich orange color.

If you don’t eat your yolks because you are concerned about cholesterol, you should note that the recommendation to avoid eggs is outdated and not true. The cholesterol in eggs has not been shown to affect overall cholesterol levels and avoiding eggs all together does nothing to improve your cholesterol. If you are looking to lower your cholesterol, making the occasional (or even daily egg) a part of your diet will not hurt your levels. Especially, if you also increase your consumption of soluble fiber (such as oatmeal), monounsaturated fats (i.e. olive oil), and polyunsaturated fats (found in cold water fish and organic, grass fed lean meat and eggs), all of which have both been proven to improve your overall cholesterol levels, by either increasing your HDL and or lowering your LDL.

On a side note, while researching this post I came across a very curious blog post about a guy who had found a white egg yolk on July 6th last year. Since that time folks have been finding his blog post, because they too just cracked open or hard boiled a “yolk less” or white yolk egg! How weird? Any way, it seems that he is still searching for an answer to this quandary, so go check out his post if you are curious or you know what is up!

Please note that no eggs were wasted for this post! The four eggs shown went into the cake that I wrote about yesterday!