----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Todd Moody" <[log in to unmask]>

> Cooking destroys many secondary compounds (along with some nutrients), 

and later Todd wrote:
  Eggs are paleo, > but contain the antinutrient avidin.  


Thanks for mentioning avidin, which led me to do some reading on it  ( I eat a lot of organic eggs).  As you stated, the ativin is destroyed by cooking.  Also, it is necessary to eat the whole egg - not just the white - in order not to be depleted of biotin.

From Chris Gupta's website:

Revised Recommendations For Raw Egg Whites 

"...Earlier this summer, I posted an article that suggested that one should not eat raw egg whites. This is the traditional nutritional dogma as raw egg whites contain a glycoprotein called avidin that is very effective at binding biotin, one of the B vitamins. The concern is that this can lead to a biotin deficiency. The simple solution is to cook the egg whites as this completely deactivates the avidin.

The problem is that it also completely deactivates nearly every other protein in the egg white. While you will still obtain nutritional benefits from consuming cooked egg whites, from a nutritional perspective it would seem far better to consume them uncooked.

Since making the recommendation in July, I have more carefully studied this issue. Two groups brought me to back this: pet owners who feed their pets raw foods and Aajonus Vonderplanitz, who wrote the raw food book We Want to Live. Both feel quite strongly that raw eggs are just fine to eat.

After my recent studies it became clear that the egg's design carefully compensated for this issue. 

It put tons of biotin in the egg yolk. Egg yolks have one of the highest concentrations of biotin found in nature. So it is likely that you will not have a biotin deficiency if you consume the whole raw egg, yolk and white. It is also clear, however, that if you only consume raw egg whites, you are nearly guaranteed to develop a biotin deficiency unless you take a biotin supplement..."

Chris Gupta
Kath (back on the list after a 7 yr. hiatus; enjoy seeing some familiar names)