Raw Eggs and Biotin Depletion | A Myth That Has You Fearing Raw Eggs

Posted on November 24, 2022

An increasing number of people worldwide are realising and remembering that microbes are NOT the cause of illness and the human body was in fact designed to eat raw animal products. It is well known that our ancestors thrived eating this way and multiple accredited people such as Dr. Weston A. Price have documented their research in this field. In a previous article I dived deep into exposing the illusory Salmonella hysteria that is the basis of most people’s fear of raw eggs, and I reviewed numerous studies illustrating the immense benefits of raw vs. cooked animal products on health. However, despite the scientific facts that show raw animal products are the easiest and fastest to digest, have the most bio-available nutrients and are the most hydrating, I would like to make it clear that you can be perfectly healthy eating a diet of solely cooked animal products, as long as these make up majority of your caloric intake.

So, if this knowledge is the reality of health and we are truly designed to digest animal products in their raw form, then that would mean… that all animal foods in their raw state, come exactly as they should be consumed. If our biology shows that cooking is not necessary, then why would nature make eggs an exception? Why are they “safer” to eat cooked or separated? Eggs are provided by nature with the yolk and the egg clears encased within the egg shell which makes the perfect cup that too, is made up of organic nutrients. It is a perfectly designed fast food that many different animals in nature consume. Wild animals actually take it a step further than us and eat the whole egg including the shell. Are animals that walk on four legs expected to somehow just eat the yolk because supposedly they might deplete their biotin stores if they don’t? That doesn’t seem logical to me. Maybe this myth is just a hysterical trend that resulted from an illusory fear of germs, similar to freezing liver before consuming it raw. Someone said to, with no real evidence as to why, and all of a sudden like a hive mind everyone follows. Even though, in reality, there are no “dangerous” microbes on a high quality, raw liver that will make you sick. For more information from numerous resources on ‘The Terrain Theory vs. The Germ Theory’, click here. Before we continue into the nutrition standpoint of this topic, I would like you to think on this… Would it make sense, if you were hypothetically to be living a primal lifestyle, to grab a man made cup, take the time getting your hands “dirty” to separate the yolk from the clear, and then chucking the egg clear on the ground even though it has beneficial nutrients? Is that more practical, when we know that there is no wasting in nature? If an animal was slaughtered by a tribe, there was NO waste. Even the bones were often crushed up and consumed for calcium in locations where there was no access to dairy. 

When I drink raw eggs I keep them in their natural form by taking them whole instead of separating the clear from the yolk. In natural, whole and unprocessed foods, particularly eggs, meat and dairy, you always find a fat with a protein. The two come together and to separate them is to de-nature nature. Isolates are good examples of when man thinks he can de-nature nature and have an unaffected result. Protein powders are isolated proteins, usually from soy or whey and according to Sally Fallon, high consumption of protein in the form of powders, typically absent of fat, “is an effective way of rapidly depleting your Vitamin A stores.” Vitamin A is a fat-soluble vitamin that is needed by your body to be able to utilise proteins. Other fat-soluble vitamins include D, E and K. When we find that perfect pair of a fat and a protein in nature, the fat molecule with its cargo of fat-soluble vitamins (including Vitamin A), supplies the body what is needed to utilise the protein without having to use the reserves from your liver. Saturated fat is also crucial for absorbing nutrients as it contains the activators (such as Vitamin K) that help everything assimilate better.

Supplements are another example of isolated nutrients which are often synthetic or are chemically extracted and ultra-processed to be in a preserved, de-hydrated, powdered form. If, for example, you were to just take one supplement that gives you calcium, you are missing out on every other nutrient found in raw milk that is in the perfect quantity to accompany the calcium to perform its job in the body as supposed to. For instance, you aren’t getting the magnesium, Vitamin D3 and K2 from an isolated calcium supplement that are all crucial in the direction and absorption of calcium into your bones and its numerous other functions in the body. Without these crucial nutrients in your diet, the calcium without its helpers will calcify the soft tissues of your body such as your joints and muscles.

So, the same goes with eggs as with isolated nutrients taken as ‘supplements’. The egg has the exact synergy of nutrients in its unadulterated form to benefit your body as intended. It is true that avidin (an amino acid) in the egg clears irreversibly binds to biotin (part of the Vitamin B complex) which is found in the egg yolk but this biotin depletion dilemma is simply a common misconception. Egg yolks are one of nature’s richest sources of biotin and there is more than enough biotin in the yolk to counteract the avidin in the egg clear. By the way, this “high” level of avidin “makes up approximately 0.05% of total protein” in an egg. Also. this binding process is still present in cooked eggs as well, although it is not nearly as discussed as raw eggs. According to Wikipedia, “The avidin in cooked egg whites is partially denatured and the binding to biotin is reduced. However one study showed that 30-40% of the avidin activity was still present in the white after frying or boiling.”

Aajonus Vonderplanitz himself, wrote on this topic and advised that it is perfectly safe to drink raw eggs in their natural, whole form. Not to mention, if Aajonus was truly drinking up to 60 raw eggs most days for decades (this number seems unbelievable but…), wouldn’t he have been a victim of the alleged “egg white injury”? 

Getrawmilk.com did some calculations to determine roughly the amount of biotin that is bound to avidin in one raw egg:

“Avidin: 180 µg per egg; molecular weight is 66-69 kDa. Call it 66 kDa for this example. One molecule can bind to 4 biotin molecules.

Biotin: Up to 25 µg per large egg. Call it 10 µg, conservatively, for this example. Molecular weight is 244.31 Da

The amount of biotin bound up by avidin in this example is:

(4 * 180 / 66000) / (10 / 244.31) = 27%

This means the majority of biotin remains freely available for digestion and absorption. Raw eggs are a net positive source of biotin, not a cause of deficiency.“

With all that has been said, people who have allergies to eggs usually find more problems with the egg clear than the yolk. If you suspect that you may have an egg intolerance, I recommend doing an allergy patch test.

One night, put some raw egg clear on your skin and cover with a bandaid and leave overnight. The second night, do the same on the other arm with raw egg yolk. If in the morning you have a red mark, rash or uncomfortable sensation, it is a sign that your body is reacting to compounds of the egg. Remove eggs from your diet and focus on healing the lining of your gut and re-perform the allergy test after two months.

If an allergy is not the issue for you, and maybe you just don’t like the consistency of egg clears, that is fine. Just consuming the yolk is no issue. Though, I don’t recommend only consuming raw egg clears as there may be a possibility that overtime, especially if you don’t get enough biotin from other sources, the avidin could deplete the biotin in your body. As for raw eggs as a whole, I am yet to come across a study or a testimony of anyone having a biotin deficiency from consuming raw eggs daily.  

The yolk comes with the clear for a reason. There is no need to be discarding half an egg. Plus, as always, if the egg is of a higher quality, it would have even more biotin in the yolk because healthy animals produce more nutrient dense products.

Numerous “influencers” in the “primal” or “carnivore” community are promoting a natural or primal lifestyle yet they promote the claim that raw egg clears, even when accompanied by yolks, will deplete your biotin stores. Whether this is conscious or sub-conscious, they seem to be dis-trusting nature. This is something to ponder.