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Breakfast carbohydrate counting? Make the right choice to go along with your eggs.

March 23, 2011 By 8 Comments

Many of us commonly build our breakfasts around eggs. They are delicious, versatile to cook with, and relatively inexpensive for their nutrient value. Eggs also provide a great balance of every important vitamin and mineral except for Vitamin C. In addition, eggs are a great source of choline and biotin. Eggs are a perfect start to your morning, yet what do you choose to go alongside them?

Many people throw their two eggs between two slices of bread, taking the easy breakfast way out, or even worse, pick up an egg sandwich on the way to work. The graphic I created aims to show you why adding some spinach with your eggs is the much smarter choice.

In the picture, both foods are displayed in quantities of exactly 140 calories. Lets take a look at how the bread and spinach compare in terms of carbohydrate content, as both foods should be viewed as a carbohydrate addition to your meal. You would require 21 ounces (1 pound, 5 ounces) of cooked spinach to equal the same amount of calories as the two slices of bread that weigh only 2 ounces total. The 21 ounces of spinach contains only 24 grams of carbohydrate compared to the 28 grams that the 2 ounces of toast contains! Also keep in mind that the white bread carbohydrates have a Glycemic index score of 71, where as the spinach carbohydrates only have a Glycemic score of 15!

Obviously you are not going to eat over a pound of spinach with your eggs, but the point to be made is that you can add in as much spinach with your eggs as you desire. You’ll be getting a reasonable amount of lower glycemic carbs and a healthy amount of soluble and insoluble fiber. Translation: Longer lasting energy that will tide you over until your afternoon snack or lunch. Another example of how Paleolithic foods remain King over our Neolithic foods, especially in our breakfasts.

If you enjoyed this visual comparison, you can find more food portion and serving size pictures over at foodsize.com

 

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About FoodSize

Jason Crouch is the owner of FoodSize.com, an educational blog that aims to teach portion and serving sizes through the use of pictures. Jason is a graduate of the Dietetic Technology program at Gateway Community College in New Haven, CT, an ADA/CADE approved nutrition program. FoodSize can also be found on Facebook for daily updates and commentary.

View all posts by author: FoodSize

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Jason Crouch

"But egg yolk is rich in cholesterol and should be avoided. Do not take egg yolk everyday, as we do not need extra cholesterol from diet (we can synthesize cholesterol in our body)."

Over half of the protein in an egg is located in the Yolk. The Yolk also contains the majority of the vitamins and mineral content of the egg. Something one should be aware of, before advising all people to skip out on the most macro and micro nutrient rich part of the egg.

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Primal Toad

You forgot to mention that millions still throw away the egg yolk! This is where most of the nutrition resides. Add as much spinach as you desire but be sure to cook up the entire egg. Or add them raw to a smoothie!

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Jason Crouch

Primal Toad is correct. Push aside the media myths that a some cholesterol is going to kill you, especially if you are a healthy and active individual. Your body actually monitors your cells, and if it senses that a cell doesn't have enough cholesterol, it will produce more. Cholesterol also is an essential building block for naturally produced vitamin D and other good stuff, like estrogen and testosterone. But even though every cell can make its own cholesterol, some cells need extra help with their supply.
Your body can actually produce more cholesterol than it already does if it does not receive enough cholesterol in it's diet, usually into the bad LDLs form which is more than your cells need, can be converted back into the good HDLs. Much of this has to do with the health of your liver, and your overall health status.
So in short, skipping the yolk is skipping out on nutrients, and you should be skipping out on things that harm your liver, such as processed foods, excessive alcohol consumption, and medications.

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Jason Crouch

Primal Toad is correct. Push aside the media myths that a some cholesterol is going to kill you, especially if you are a healthy and active individual. Your body actually monitors your cells, and if it senses that a cell doesn't have enough cholesterol, it will produce more. Cholesterol also is an essential building block for naturally produced vitamin D and other good stuff, like estrogen and testosterone. But even though every cell can make its own cholesterol, some cells need extra help with their supply.

Your body can actually produce more cholesterol than it already does if it does not receive enough cholesterol in it's diet, usually into the bad LDLs form which is more than your cells need, can be converted back into the good HDLs. Much of this has to do with the health of your liver, and your overall health status.

So in short, skipping the yolk is skipping out on nutrients, and you should be skipping out on things that harm your liver, such as processed foods, excessive alcohol consumption, and medications.

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Jason Crouch

"But egg yolk is rich in cholesterol and should be avoided. Do not take egg yolk everyday, as we do not need extra cholesterol from diet (we can synthesize cholesterol in our body)."
Over half of the protein in an egg is located in the Yolk. The Yolk also contains the majority of the vitamins and mineral content of the egg. Something one should be aware of, before advising all people to skip out on the most macro and micro nutrient rich part of the egg.

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anna

Hey! i confess I cheated last night and ate a walnut cake....oh, gosh! but today´s morning i ate eggs and spinach! nhammy...now i get back to diet and stop emotional eating....yeah...it´s hard to say no when it´s emotional...=o/

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Jason Crouch

How about a pound and 5 ounces of Spinach?

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Health Blog

Many of us take eggs at breakfast along with bread (most commonly). But egg yolk is rich in cholesterol and should be avoided. Do not take egg yolk everyday, as we do not need extra cholesterol from diet (we can synthesize cholesterol in our body). We all know what cholesterol can do to us.

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darc

Who says we wouldn't eat a pound of spinach? I LOVE spinach with eggs...I eat Paleo and this is a typical meal for me: eggs, spinach, avocado. It can't be beat!

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