Episode 35: Cracking open Egg Nutrition!

Episode 35: Cracking open Egg Nutrition!

Welcome back to The Easy Feed Podcast! Today, we're cracking open the topic of eggs and delving into their incredible nutritional benefits for our little ones.

Eggs are a fantastic source of high-quality protein and other essential nutrients for both children and adults. Let’s explore why eggs are such a powerful food and how you can seamlessly incorporate them into your child's diet.

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Links
https://nourishwithkarina.com/feedingbabies
https://nourishwithkarina.com/3-week-feeding-kids-reset

Highlights:

Introduction (00:00.00)
Eggs: A Nutritious Food for Children and Adults (00:29.582)
Egg Whites and Their Health Benefits (02:41.23)
Egg Consumption Guidelines for Children (05:00.174)
Egg Allergies in Australia (07:14.094)
Child Allergies and Their Management (09:37.39)
Egg-Egg Mixing and Nutrition (12:03.726)
The Importance of Organic and Free Range Animal Products (14:18.062)
Nutritional Benefits of Nature-Based Foods (16:35.63)
Egg Incorporation in Food and Cooking (18:10.894)
Capsicum Ring Cooking and Other Healthy Recipes (20:14.446)
Making Muffins (22:11.534)
Eggs and Nutritional Power (23:49.966)
Egg Nutrition Tips for Children (26:14.158)

Show notes

READ TRANSCRIPT

Show Notes

Welcome back to The Easy Feed Podcast! Today, we're cracking open the topic of eggs and delving into their incredible nutritional benefits for our little ones.

In this episode, I'll cover:

1. Nutrient-Rich Yolk vs. Egg White: I'll break down the differences between egg yolks and egg whites, highlighting why the yolk is packed with nutrients that are vital for your child's growth.

2. Eggs and Cholesterol: I'll clarify the relationship between eggs and cholesterol, debunking common myths and providing you with the latest health insights.

3. Introducing Eggs to Babies: I'll share my tips on how to introduce eggs to your baby's diet safely and effectively to reduce the risk of food allergies.

4. Creative Ways to Incorporate Eggs: From custards and smoothies to quiches and pasta, I'll give you plenty of ideas to make eggs a regular part of your child's meals.

5. Choosing the Right Eggs: I'll discuss the benefits of opting for organic or free-range eggs over caged eggs, focusing on nutrition and animal welfare.
I've always found eggs to be a lifesaver, especially when it comes to ensuring my daughter's protein intake when she isn't keen on meat. They're versatile, nutritious, and easy to prepare in a way that kids love.

For more delicious and nutritious recipes for your kids, don't forget to visit Nourish with Karina

Thanks for tuning in!

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Show Notes:

- Visit Nourish with Karina for more kid-friendly recipes.

Learn more about my membership program, head over to: https://nourishwithkarina.com/membership

Introduction (00:00.174)
You're listening to the Easy Feed Podcast, episode number 35, all about eggs. Hi there, I'm Carina Savage and with over 20 years experience feeding children, including my own, I've learnt all the secrets that busy mums need to get their children eating better and actually enjoying healthy foods. So a huge welcome to the Easy Feed Podcast.

Eggs: A Nutritious Food for Children and Adults (00:29.582)
everybody, it is so good to have you. I hope you're all very well. This morning I was on sunrise talking about eggs and it took me back actually to when I did a little promotional thing with Australian eggs years ago now, but it reminded me how important it is to have the message out there that eggs are a very nutritious food for our children.

And adults, of course. So today I was talking about eggs in general. I was talking about eggs for adults. I was talking about how many eggs per week are healthy. So I'll run through all of that a little later, but yeah, I just wanted to devote this segment to eggs because they can be a really effective way of getting good quality protein into our children's day. I know I've struggled a lot over the years with my daughter's protein intake and especially when she was younger.

trying to get good quality protein into her, especially if she didn't like meat. So eggs were a brilliant way and I utilized eggs a lot to try to, you know, boost extra iron into her day. And eggs are also a very rich source of choline, which is a nutrient that is really essential for brain development and eyes actually. It's really good for your eyes. Choline, little old choline.

So eggs are a rich source of choline and there's not too many foods that are a rich source of choline. Eggs are good for choline, eggs are good for vitamin D. Vitamin D isn't found in too many foods. It's found in fish, it's found in mushrooms and eggs. So eggs are a rich source of vitamin D, choline, amigas, folate. All of these nutrients are found in the yolk of the egg.

And that's a question that I actually got asked this morning. They said, he said, what's better? Is it the white or the yolk or does it matter? Because a lot of people love egg whites. And actually it was only yesterday at my son's footy that I was standing with a friend watching the game. And she said to me, my gosh, my daughter's just discovered that she loves egg whites. And apparently now you can buy them from the supermarket.

Egg Whites and Their Health Benefits (02:41.23)
packets of these egg whites and I said to her, is it powder? And she said, no, it's actually like fresh egg whites that have been, I guess, separated from the egg yolk and put into packets. And you can actually buy egg as a pack and she loves egg whites. And now she's having egg whites every morning for breakfast, scrambled egg whites. So that's great. It's a good source of protein and it's absolutely going to help you feel fuller throughout the morning if you're having it with toast. So it's a good way to...

boost protein and what I call satiety, so feeling satisfied throughout the morning. So that's going to help concentration. But in terms of the nutrients, we do want to be including the egg yolk because the egg yolk is where you find all the goodness. So that's where you find all those valuable nutrients, the folate, the vitamin D, the choline, the amigas. So try to include the egg yolk where possible. And we will talk about ways to...

Get more egg yolks into your child's day in a minute. Okay. So one of the questions that I got this morning was, are eggs and cholesterol linked? And whilst you may not want to know this for your child, well, you may, but it's probably more relevant to you as an adult listening, because eggs, I guess, historically have had a bit of a bad rap in relation to cholesterol.

And there was the school of thought for many years that eggs should be limited because they raise cholesterol. And look, it's a little confusing, but the bottom line is that eggs have a very minimal effect on our blood cholesterol levels. There are plenty of foods that are going to raise our cholesterol levels a lot more than the little old egg foods that will raise your cholesterol a lot more are things that are high in saturated fats such as

You know, fried foods, pastries, butter, you know, the fat dripping off meat, those foods are going to raise your cholesterol. Yes. But eggs, no, they have very minimal effect on blood cholesterol. So if you are healthy, you can eat as many eggs as you want. There is no restriction. However, the Heart Foundation does have a precaution for those with a history of heart disease or have type 2 diabetes.

Egg Consumption Guidelines for Children (05:00.174)
And they do say to limit to seven eggs per week or one egg per day. So that's just a bit of a precaution because the jury's still not out in relation to the whole cholesterol heart disease link. I mean, they don't think that they're rizzling, but they're just playing it safe. So if there is any chance of heart issues, then limit to seven per week. But otherwise, if you're healthy, you can have as many eggs as you like. And certainly...

including them regularly in your child's day is very nutritious for your child. Now we want to be starting eggs right from the get -go. We really want to be introducing eggs into our child's life before eight months of age. And the reason is to reduce their risk of food allergy. So there's some pretty good studies now to suggest that delaying the introduction of egg can actually

increase the risk of your child developing a food allergy. So it's really important to make sure that you cook the egg yolk and white together, blend it up and give small amounts to your child when introducing solids before the age of eight months. And when I am talking about introducing solids, I'll take this moment to let you know that I'm super excited. I've just launched my feeding babies program. So that is out there.

And I'm ready to share it with the world. And in that Beating Babies program, not only do I go through everything to do with starting solids, but I also talk about introducing the allergenic foods, making sure your child's gut health is as good as it can be and plenty more. So if you want to know more about that, then head to my website, click on baby nutrition, and you'll be taken through to that information. In that I talk about...

giving your baby little bits of egg every day for a week. If they've tolerated that, then wonderful. They're likely to be completely fine with egg. You can include it then in their weekly rotation of foods. It's important that once you have introduced the food allergen, you do keep it in their life every week to make sure that they maintain that oral tolerance. Because it's babies that get exposed to the protein, say it.

Egg Allergies in Australia (07:14.094)
six months and then they don't have it for four months and then they get another exposure at 10 months of age, that can then increase the chance of them reacting. So once your baby has tolerated that egg protein, then keep it in their life every week in small amounts or moderate amounts or however much you want to give your baby or however much your baby wants, I should say, because we want to practice what we call responsive eating where we let your baby determine how much they want to eat.

but keep it in their life because that just then maintains that stimulus and it maintains that oral tolerance and prevents the development of an egg allergy. And let's be honest, egg allergy is actually the most common allergy in Australia, believe it or not. Above peanut, above shellfish, above any other food allergy, above chosmococcin allergy, egg allergy is the most common food allergy. And it often presents at around the age of one. So not necessarily when you've introduced solids.

Sometimes you can actually get the egg allergy later. The symptoms of an egg allergy can be either IgE mediated where you get the mouth swelling, the breathing difficulties, the tongue swelling, the rash, the lips that are swollen. So that's what we call IgE mediated. Or you can get the non IgE mediated where you have the gut symptoms. So you get the vomiting or the diarrhea or the blood in the stool. So.

If it's a rash, hives, mouth swelling, breathing difficulties, that's what we call IgE mediated. And that can be more like an anaphylactic or is an anaphylactic reaction. So that's more dangerous and life threatening. And then you've got the non IgE mediated, which is where you've got the vomiting and whatnot that is caused by the food going into the gut. And just to make things confusing, you also have a condition called S -pies, which is food.

protein -induced enterocolitis and that is another condition where you are allergic to the food protein and what happens is it's about a couple of hours after you've eaten the egg that your baby or child will start to vomit profusely and they'll just keep vomiting and vomiting and vomiting and then they tend to get lethargic and a bit hale and limp and that is what we call an F -Py reaction.

Child Allergies and Their Management (09:37.39)
And that's why I always encourage parents to watch their child for the first, you know, three to four hours. Always give the egg or the allergen that you're introducing mid morning, you know, for the first week, give it mid morning so that then you can watch them throughout the day after they've had that allergen to make sure that they've tolerated it. Children can often outgrow egg allergies and other allergies. However, some children...

you know, will remain allergic to eggs and will carry this allergy with them, you know, into primary school and beyond. So it's variable in terms of if a child does develop an allergy, how long it stays with them. Look, there's things that we can try doing and I can certainly talk to you about how we can best help to outgrow an allergy. And I come at it from a probiotics perspective, from a nutrition perspective, but then

Allergists will have other ideas such as immunotherapy and certainly I know of many allergists that will support families with a plan for immunotherapy to help their child outgrow their various food allergy. Okay, so that's a bit about introducing eggs. So make sure that, you know, if you've got a bubs on the way or a little one that you're starting solids with, make sure that you introduce eggs by the age of eight months and ideally the yolk and the white both cooked.

You don't want to give your child a runny egg yolk until after the age of one. And that's just from a food safety perspective. I remember with my daughter, I would soft boil an egg. I would put her toast in the toaster and once it was toasted and the soft boiled egg was cooked, I would cut the top of the soft boiled egg. So you basically do the tap, tap, tap on the top of the egg. You cut across sort of the top quarter or third. And so you've got that little lid that you lift off.

And then you basically, what I did is I scooped out the soft egg yolk and I spread it all over the toast. So it was kind of like a spread, like you do jam or avocado or peanut butter, but it was like egg yolk spread. And then I would cut it up into little pieces and give it to her. So it kind of takes me back to how my Nona used to do it. Actually, she used to basically do the same thing. She would soft boil an egg. She would get toast and then she would.

Egg-Egg Mixing and Nutrition (12:03.726)
cut it up into little, I guess they were probably one or two centimeter little cubes of toast. Then she would get the soft boiled egg and she would scoop out the entire thing. So the yolk and the white wastes nothing from that era. And she would basically just scoop the whole egg white and the runny yolk into the bowl with the bread and basically mix it through. It was delicious. And that's something that you can absolutely do as well. I think the reason I just did the yolk was just because

She wasn't a huge eater. And so I just wanted her to get the goodness and kept the iron and goleen and whatnot from the yolk. But, gee, I sound like a dietitian there, don't I? Funny about that. But that's why, because that's where the nutrition is. And so that worked. And then you could apply that same principle to other things like French toast. So you could do French toast option. And I certainly tried that as well. You could do pieclips as well. But always make sure that you are including the yolk.

because that's where the nutrition is. So on the show this morning, before we went on air, I got asked what my preferred egg choice was because we had organic, we had free range. I didn't have cage because there's no way I would ever support cage. What else do we have? I think it was open. It wasn't open access, but it was some other name, but basically meant free range. So basically had mostly free range and then organic.

And so we had some different options and they asked me, what do I buy personally? And I said, well, to be honest with you, I buy organic because I think that's going to be the most nutritious, least tampered with product. So it's likely to have less additives, less everything because

The chickens are given organic feed and they are allowed to roam and it's the most natural closest to nature option that we have. Now I know that they're a lot more expensive, but I feel that you're putting in more natural product into your child's body if you buy organic. Next best is free range because again, the chickens are allowed to roam outside. There's a...

The Importance of Organic and Free Range Animal Products (14:18.062)
likelihood that they're higher in vitamin D and omegas, although the jury's still a little out. They do different studies in different countries and you get different results. But my thinking is the closest you can get to how Mother Nature intended it, the better and the healthier. And I would never touch a caged egg in my life. Like the horrendous treatment of those animals is, yeah, beyond belief. And I would never

even entertain the thought of buying caged eggs and I cannot believe they even sell caged eggs. So yes, I think you get my take on that, which is why I wouldn't even buy a box of carton of caged eggs for the television segment because I just feel it's horrible treatment and I don't agree with keeping chickens in cages. I mean, I heard one live in a cage their whole life. So yeah, I would definitely always avoid caged eggs and I would always choose either the free range or the organic option.

And that pretty much goes for all animal products. I mean, if you do choose to eat animal products, the more organic and closest to nature, the better. The factory farmed animals that are given, you know, factory feed, you just don't know what they're consuming. You don't know what antibiotics and other things have been injected into their bodies. So it's a minefield, but...

As buyers, I think now more than ever, we need to be really smart about what we're putting into our bodies and our children's bodies because I believe there's a whole lot of deception out there and lack of communication about how our food is treated both before and after the animal has passed. And the same goes for milk too.

I don't think they need to declare whether the animal has been given medications or whatnot, but yet they're still breastfeeding milk into cartons that our children are drinking and that we're drinking. So if you are a dairy consumer, it's just trying to go into it with your eyes a little wider open because I just think we need to be aware that choosing

Nutritional Benefits of Nature-Based Foods (16:35.63)
foods that are closest to nature could have significant health benefits more than we even realise. And I know that they often come with a price tag. So it's about making the best choices you can for your family with your budget. And sometimes I would just go for the vegetarian option as well. I think vegetarian options are so much more nutritious in so many ways. The plant fibres, the prebiotics, the protein and the nutrients that come with

legumes and soy products, obviously not genetically modified soy, but legumes and those types of foods, super nutritious. And of course, eggs. Good old eggs. We'll circle back to eggs now, right? We'll do the full circle. I went off on a little tangent there, but that's okay. All good. Let's get back to eggs. So I wanted to now talk about some different ways that we could incorporate eggs into our day or our child's day.

Early on when your little one is a bubba, eggs can be used to make custard or they can be blended into pureed vegetables or they can be used in mashed consistencies.

such as mashed veggies or

A sandwich where you've mashed egg and mayonnaise in the middle of it. Or a little bit of curry powder if they've got a mature palate. Scrambled eggs are another great one.

Egg Incorporation in Food and Cooking (18:10.894)
or even cold boiled eggs. So basically you've hard boiled an egg and then it's cooled and then you slice it finely or you can just smush it, your child might smush it up. Again, playing with the food is great. It helps build their familiarity and trust. Another great way to incorporate eggs is with little mini quiches, zucchini slice, frittata, omelette,

They're often well received as well. And really to this, you can add as many vegetables as you want.

I always used to crack an egg actually into my daughter's banana smoothie because it was just a way that I could get egg into her and she didn't even know. I also cracked an egg into her pasta because of course she liked plain butter pasta. So, well, pasta with butter, I should say, or oil and salt. So I would cook the pasta, then I would put some oil on it. And then as it was still warm, but not so hot that it was going to scramble the egg, I would

pop an egg into the pasta and then stir it gently so it kind of just smooths over the top of the pasta like through it, but not scrambled to the point that it would be really obvious. Now if you were to put cheese in it as well, it would help to hide the egg because it would sort of be that sort of white consistency over the pasta. So that was another good way to add extra protein, extra iron into my daughter's dinner.

Eggs can also be used to make little fish cakes, to make little meatballs. You can use a couple of eggs with meatballs. You can also use egg to crumb schnitzels. So basically you take the little piece of chicken, you pop it in some corn flour, then in egg and then in breadcrumbs and then you fry it. Eggs are also good to use in stir fries. You can also crack an egg into the fry pan.

Capsicum Ring Cooking and Other Healthy Recipes (20:14.446)
where you've got a capsicum ring. So basically you cut whole capsicums across ways. So there's a capsicum ring and you pop that in the fry pan and then you crack an egg into it so that it kind of acts like an egg ring, but it's capsicum. So that's a really fun way to cook egg. And it might actually encourage a child to eat capsicum. Now this is probably for a toddler or a child, but it's a fun way. And you could possibly even make a little face out of it or just have the egg.

in the capsicum ring. In my member recipes, I've got pancake recipes, I've got

Kiki's recipes and zucchini slice recipes. And I've also got a great recipe that's three ingredients and it's bananas, eggs and oats. And that's another great one. That's a good source of protein. My black bean brownie actually uses three eggs and a tin of black beans. So that's a brilliant source of protein and a great source of eggs. Great to take to school. And it just gives you peace of mind that your child is getting

iron rich protein that's not meat. And so, you know, you have a little happy dance on the inside, even if they're refusing to take like chicken mayo to school, but they'll take the black bean brownie and you're like, wow, amazing winning. So the recipe that I talked about this morning on channel seven was a build your own mini quiche recipe. And the way I made that was I took four eggs and a cup of milk.

And you could use whatever milk you want here and you beat them up together. So they're all well mixed. Then you take a muffin tray with 12 holes in it, muffin holes, and you line them with either puff pastry or buttered wholemeal bread that you take the crust off and then you press them face down into the muffin tray. Now, if your muffin tray is a bit prone to sticking, you could...

Making Muffins (22:11.534)
line them with a little bit of baking paper. And what you need to do is you need to cut out the little individual squares of baking paper with a bit of butter and then basically press them in first and then pop the pastry in. And that's a guaranteed way that they're not going to stick. So we did that, but you know, it's by we, I'm saying my mother -in -law is over visiting and she helped me because it was late on a Sunday night and had to bake these ready for Monday morning for sunrise. And so she blessed her cutout end.

We press them into the little muffin trays and then I was able to make them from there. So we, I pressed the pastry in and then I poured a little bit of the, so what I did, I did the eggs and the milk and then I did a little salt and pepper. Okay. So that mixture I poured into the little muffin holes, which were either pastry or bread. And I spread them out evenly. Well, basically I just filled them up until they were full. Then I chopped up some little veggies, little finely chopped

spring onions, capsicum and mushroom. And then I sprinkled some of those into each little muffin hole.

I then grated a cup of cheddar cheese.

and then put a little handful of cheese into each of those little muffin holes to top it off basically. So then you had 12 little holes that were either lined with bread or pastry that had the egg mixture, the veggies, and then the cheese on top. And they baked in the oven for 20 minutes on 200 degrees and they were absolutely delicious. They were devoured by everyone in the studios this morning. I think the cameraman, Ren, had five.

Eggs and Nutritional Power (23:49.966)
And then they usually take them up to the offices afterwards. I think there was only about three or four left to go upstairs. So sorry about that, but I think they were too yummy and everyone in the studio consumed them first. So that's a great recipe. And I'll be popping that up on my member website soon. And by the way, if you want to know how to join the membership, just head to my website, nourishwithcarina .com and click on the, either the fussy eating or the feeding babies link.

And you'll be taken through to either the Fussy Eating Program or the Feeding Babies Program, which both sit in my membership. And that way you can join with whichever avenue suits you best. If you've got a baby, click on the baby. If you've got a Fussy Eater, click on the Fussy Eater and then you can join my membership and you can join us. And of course get access to all those awesome recipes. I'm a little biased, but people do like them. And of course, most importantly, our children like them, right?

Okay, so here's just a little summary of what you find in an egg. Not only do you find the protein, but if you're eating the yolk as well, which is what I highly recommend, then you are getting these nutrients. Vitamin A, riboflavin, vitamin, vitamin B6, vitamin B12, biotin, folate, vitamin D, E, K, potassium, magnesium, phosphorus, iron.

selenium, zinc and iodine. They are little nutrition powerhouses. So if your child can eat eggs and will eat eggs, even if they won't eat eggs, I'd get them into their life somehow. I would hide them in a smoothie, in a black bean brownie, in a pasta. I would mash them into something so that they didn't realise it was there. I would put them in pieclets. I would put them in a custard. I would get

eggs into your child's day because they are super nutritious. Now, because the iron isn't as well absorbed as when it comes from meat, then you do want to put vitamin C rich foods with it to maximize the absorption of the iron and also the zinc in the egg. So that's why it's a match made in heaven to have the egg in the capsicum ring because the capsicum is high in vitamin C. So it's a perfect combination or doing scrambled eggs with a side of tomato.

Egg Nutrition Tips for Children (26:14.158)
or even tomato sauce, which has got the vitamin C will help the iron absorption from the egg. So if your child's a tomato sauce lover, then that's fine as well. Or even a little bit of Mandarin or Kiwi or orange on the side or a tiny bit of juice just to help the absorption of the iron from the egg. I mean, I'm not a massive juice advocate, but a little bit of orange juice to help a bit of iron absorb is not such a bad thing. So absolutely.

Put vitamin C rich foods with the eggs because it's going to help absorb the iron probably three to four fold in terms of better absorption. As I said, eggs are a rich source of vitamin D as well. And vitamin D is a nutrient that we are seeing more and more deficiency of these days. So vitamin D is a fat soluble vitamin. You don't need vitamin C to help absorb it, but that's why it's in the yolk because all the fat soluble vitamins in the yolk

So that's why it's so important to give your child the yolk. Okay, I'll wrap it up there. I hope that's been a helpful one on eggs. Please let me know what you think. Please ask me any questions you have on eggs. And also please leave me a review so we can get this podcast out to everybody. I hope you have a wonderful week and I can't wait to chat to you soon. Bye for now.