Mercola changes his mind on raw egg whites

[Guest guest]

From his latest newsletter:

>Well folks, it is time for a major update on my recommendations for eating

>raw eggs. First, before I review the update, I want to dispel the common

>myth that raw eggs are bad for you. Most people fear them because of the

>risk for salmonella contamination. If you are still concerned about this

>please read my earlier article on raw eggs.

>

>As part of that article I had stated that one should never consume raw egg

>white alone without the yolks, as a component in them called avidin binds

>to the B-vitamin biotin, potentially creating a deficiency in your body.

>However, my position shifted when one consumed whole raw eggs, both the

>yolk and the white together.

>

>One of my raw food mentors convinced me that there was more than enough

>biotin in raw egg yolks to compensate for this problem, and I revised my

>previous recommendation to say that eating whole raw eggs would not pose a

>problem. This idea made sense to me as many wild animals consume raw eggs

>with no apparent problems.

>

>However, recently a subscriber, Dr. Sharma, PhD, who is a biochemist with

>Bayer, contacted me about this issue. His investigation into the matter

>revealed that there is not enough biotin in an egg yolk to bind to all the

>avidin present in the raw whites. He found that 5.7 grams of biotin are

>required to neutralize all the avidin found in the raw whites of an

>average-sized egg. There are only about 25 micrograms -- or 25 millionths

>of a gram -- of biotin in an average egg yolk.

The rest is here.

http://www.mercola.com/2005/feb/9/raw_eggs.htm

I always thought it sounded kind of silly to willingly waste even a large

fraction of the available biotin in eggs by regularly consuming the whites

raw, but if this latest information is correct, it's a strong argument for

consuming raw whites only rarely.

-