Tuesday, January 2, 2007

Yo, Adrienne!

[[From a recent Slate Explainer podcast (www.slate.com) called “Do boxers drink raw eggs?”—apparently the aging Rocky Balboa does it again in the new installment “Rocky 19”]]

They’re not supposed to. Boxing trainers praise the egg as an excellent source of muscle-building protein, and admit that drinking a protein shake made with raw eggs is a lot more convenient than making an omelet at the gym. But few trainers believe that raw eggs are more nutritious than the cooked variety, and fewer still would run the risk of losing their protégé to a case of Salmonella enteridis. The egg-borne bacterium can cause chills, diarrhea, muscle weakness, and dehydration, all negatives before a big fight. Even if the eggs were germ-free, drinking the whites might not be a good idea: Raw, as opposed to cooked, egg whites contain a substance called avidin, which prevents the body from absorbing biotin, an important vitamin. (You’d have to ingest 26 raw egg whites a day for a month to develop a biotin deficiency.)