Mark’s Daily Apple, Raw Eggs, Biotin and My Hair

This post is a part of Fightback Friday at the Food renegade.

Mark at Mark’s Daily Apple wrote about raw eggs a while ago but I haven’t gotten around to discussing his post until now.  Mark says that raw eggs are fine with caveats, but that you should avoid eating too many raw egg whites to avoid biotin deficiency:

As you mention, eating raw eggs carries the eventual risk of a biotin deficiency. Although egg yolk is actually a rich source of biotin, the white contains avidin, a glycoprotein that bonds with biotin, preventing the nutrient’s absorption. Avidin is generally inactivated when cooked, which makes the biotin in the yolk fully available for absorption by the body. You don’t have to rule out raw eggs by any means. I wouldn’t advise eating them daily for long stretches of time without a biotin supplement (supported within a B-complex intake, since these vitamins work synergistically). If you’re eating them just a few times a week, the risk for deficiency isn’t as great, but I would still do a supplement or at least make sure I was getting a hefty amount of biotin rich food (swiss chard, tomatoes, carrots, liver and others) the days I eat raw eggs.

The Weston Price Foundation also recommends only eating the yolk of raw eggs to avoid biotin deficiency. At least say this in their cookbook, Nourishing Traditions, but probably in other places as well.

Dr. Mercola was the first person to bring it to my attention that egg whites are a large source of biotin.  Because the egg yolk provides biotin but the egg white neutralizes biotin, raw eggs could supplement, deplete, or be neutral to your biotin levels.

The wikipedia article on Biotin deficiency lists several symptoms:

1. Dry skin
2. Seborrheic dermatitis
3. Fungal infections
4. Rashes including red, patchy ones near the mouth
5. Fine and brittle hair
6. Hair loss or total baldness

While I have never had too much trouble with dry skin, I do have trouble with dandruff especially in the winter even though it is not a major problem.  Using a dandruff shampoo eliminates all dandruff for me.  After going no poo I noticed a little bit of dandruff, but my hair would become greasy before a noticeable amount of dandruff formed.

Recently I adopted a shorter hair style and dandruff became a bigger problem than greasiness or waxiness.  I think this is because the shorter hair lets the skin on my scalp to dry out more easily.  A biotin deficiency will affect your hair because a biotin deficiency can lead to hair loss and baldness.

I have noticed that when I consume more raw eggs (yolk+white) my dandruff improves (there is less of it) compared to when I don’t eat raw eggs.  This leads me to believe that raw eggs are a net supplement of biotin.

Eating egg yolks by themselves will probably give you more biotin than eating the entire egg, but I believe that eating whole raw eggs can also increase biotin levels.

Tagged as: biotin, dandruff, Hair, raw eggs