Healthy Eggs: Easy Ways to Add Nutrition
Updated: Feb. 09, 2017
Eggs are wonderfully healthy, but eating them with these other good-for-you foods unlocks even more benefits for your bones, brain, energy levels, and more.
Perfect Pair: Eggs + Spinach
Why it’s healthy: Boost bone health
One cup of cooked spinach contains over 1,000 percent of your daily recommended intake of vitamin K, which is important for bone health. Vitamin K is fat soluble, which means your body absorbs it best with other foods that contain a little fat, like that in eggs. Spinach is also an excellent source of other bone-supporting nutrients like calcium and magnesium.
Enjoy them together: Whip up this Mushroom and Spinach Frittata recipe from the NYTimes.com as a hearty breakfast-for-dinner option, or enjoy this Egg Florentine recipe from WomensHealthMag.com.
Perfect Pair: Eggs + Cantaloupe
Why it’s healthy: Boost energy levels
Group these foods together at breakfast and you could keep your energy levels high until lunch. According to MensHealth.com, protein from the egg slows the absorption of carbohydrate in the cantaloupe, says nutritionist Stacy Kennedy of the Dana Farber Cancer Institute. “This synergy helps by minimizing insulin and blood-sugar spikes, which are followed by a crash, zapping energy,” says Kennedy. “High insulin levels are connected with inflammation, diabetes, cancer, and other diseases. By slowing the absorption of glucose, your body can better read the cues that you are full. This helps prevent everything from overeating to indigestion.”
Enjoy them together: Pair a fried egg with sliced cantaloupe as part of your morning meal, or have a hard-boiled egg and cantaloupe balls for an afternoon snack.
Perfect Pair: Egg + Banana
Why it’s healthy: Help your body recover post workout
After a tough sweat session, it’s important to replace carbohydrates, potassium, and other nutrients you lose during exercise. You may also need protein to help muscles recover. A banana and egg combo makes this simple: the banana supplies plenty of carbs and potassium and the egg’s protein can help repair muscles while also stunting a blood sugar spike from the carbs.
Enjoy them together: Bag a hard-boiled egg and a banana for after your workout. Another tasty option: Make a smoothie with eggs, banana, blueberries, and almond milk.
Perfect Pair: Eggs + Cheese
Why it’s healthy: Reduce PMS
You’ve probably always loved this combo, but the duo packs a powerful nutrition punch. The vitamin D in egg yolks helps your body absorb the cheese’s bone- and heart-protecting calcium, according to RodaleNews.com. Calcium and vitamin D together may make women feel better during that time of the month, research shows. Women with the highest intakes of both nutrients had significantly fewer PMS symptoms than those who ate less.
Enjoy them together: Add cheese to your scrambled eggs, as in Sunny’s Perfect Scrambled Cheesy Eggs on FoodNetwork.com, or top a sunny-side up egg with a slice of cheese on whole grain roll for a breakfast sandwich.
