How many eggs a week is sensible?

For most healthy adults, up to one a day has not been linked to heart disease in the large studies. If you have diabetes or existing heart disease, the picture is less settled and worth asking your doctor about.

Are brown eggs better than white?

No. Shell colour is the breed of hen and nothing else. What the hen ate changes the yolk. The shell doesn't tell you.

Is a runny yolk safe?

For a healthy adult, the risk is small. In pregnancy, for young children and for anyone with a weakened immune system, cook the yolk through.

Chapter 1 of 11

Eggs

If You Read Nothing Else

Complete protein: about 6 g per egg. One of the richest common food sources of choline. Provides vitamin B12, vitamin D, selenium, lutein (a yellow pigment linked to eye health) and zeaxanthin.

At a Persian breakfast, eggs often arrive as nimroo, fried in butter or oil with tomato and eaten with bread. The same simple ingredient holds kuku sabzi together, enriches ash, and sits on the Nowruz sofreh as a symbol of new life.

One egg gives you complete protein, choline, vitamin B12 and vitamin D in a form most people digest easily. That's useful at any age, and especially in later life.