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Egg Protein as a Source of Power,

Strength, and Energy
Donald Layman

Nutrition Today

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 Food Science
Egg Protein as a Source of
Power, Strength, and Energy
Donald K. Layman, PhD
Nancy R. Rodriguez, PhD, RD, CSSD, FACSM
High-quality proteins make a valuable contribution to the
synthesis and maintenance of muscle and indirectly to the
regulation of blood glucose levels, thus contributing to
power, strength, and energy. Eggs have traditionally been
used as the standard of comparison for measuring protein
quality because of their essential amino acid (EAA) profile
and high digestibility. They provide a nutrient-dense source
of energy from protein and fat, approximately 75 kcal per
large egg, as well as several B vitamins, including thiamin,
riboflavin, folate, B12, and B6, which are required for the
production of energy by the body. Given the unique
complementary relationship between the EAA leucine and
glucose utilization by muscle, it would follow that a diet rich
in the amino acid leucine would be advantageous to men
and women undergoing endurance training. Leucine is also a
critical element in regulating muscle protein synthesis and
may be the key amino acid defining the increased needs for
EAA to optimize skeletal muscle mass. Increased tissue
levels of leucine combine with circulating insulin to allow
skeletal muscles to manage protein metabolism and fuel
selection in relation to diet composition. Moreover, muscle
recovery from exercise, both resistance and endurance,
seems to be dependent on dietary leucine. Because eggs are
an excellent, nutrient-rich source of leucine, as well as
other EAAs, these protein-related benefits may be important
to active individuals who routinely consume eggs as part of a
varied, balanced diet. Nutr Today. 2009;44(1):43–48
ower, strength, and energy are key components of
P a healthy and vital life. Building and maintaining
muscle tissue are primary contributors to these
Nutrition Today, Volume 44  Number 1  January/February, 2009
Copyright @ 2009 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. Unauthorized reproduction of this article is prohibited.
quality-of-life end points, as muscle is central to
human health and functional capacity.1 Muscle tissue
is involved in several metabolic functions, including
regulating blood sugar. About 40% of body protein is
found in skeletal muscle.2 Numerous studies have
clearly documented that consumption of protein from
various sources and amino acid supplements stimulates
muscle protein synthesis.3Y6 Specifically, essential
amino acids (EAA) are required to stimulate protein
synthesis, whereas nonessential amino acids play a
supportive role and serve other metabolic purposes.7
As a source of high-quality protein, providing all of
the EAA, eggs make a valuable contribution to the
synthesis and maintenance of muscle and indirectly
to the regulation of blood glucose levels, thus
contributing to power, strength, and energy.
High-Quality Protein in a Healthful Diet
The primary function of dietary protein is to supply
nitrogen and amino acids, both essential and
nonessential, in amounts and proportions needed for
the synthesis of body proteins. Thus, the amino acid
content and profile of specific food proteins are a
primary determinant of protein quality.8 Animal
proteins, such as those from eggs, meat, poultry, fish,
and milk, are well recognized as being high-quality
proteins.
A primary fate of ingested amino acids is
incorporation into muscle protein, which plays a
central role in whole-body protein metabolism by
serving as the principal reservoir for amino acids in
protein synthesis.1 Increasing protein or amino acid
intakes will support the maintenance, repair, and
synthesis of skeletal muscle proteins and may optimize
muscle strength.1 Research in healthy, young men
shows that both muscle mass and strength are
improved by increased availability of amino acids,
subsequent to ingesting an amino acid supplement,
even in the absence of physical activity.5
43
Food Science Egg as a Source of Power, Strength, and Energy
Increasing protein or amino acid
intakes will support the maintenance,
repair, and synthesis of skeletal
muscle protein and may optimize
muscle strength.
Because the level of habitual protein intake has been
shown to influence the synthesis of muscle protein after
exercise,9 it is reasonable to hypothesize that routine
consumption of high-quality proteins, such as that in
eggs, would impart benefits to skeletal muscle. With
regard to protein source, a study of elderly women
showed that there was a greater net protein synthesis
when the women ate a mostly animal protein diet (14.5%
of energy provided by mixed animal protein; 5.1%
from mixed vegetable protein) compared with that
noted when they consumed a diet consisting of mostly
vegetable protein (15.1% mixed vegetable protein;
5.0% mixed animal protein) for 2 weeks.10 It has
been recommended that the most practical means of
promoting or increasing skeletal muscle protein
anabolism is to include a highYbiological-value protein
at each meal.11
High-Quality Protein From Eggs
The quality of any single dietary protein source is
based on its amino acid composition and the digestibility
of that protein. In general, animal proteins, such as
eggs, provide higher quality protein compared with
vegetable-based proteins because of their higher levels
of the EAA lysine, threonine, valine, isoleucine, leucine,
methionine, phenylalanine, tryptophan, and histidine.12
Protein quality can be assessed also with respect to its
efficiency in supporting body protein metabolism, which
takes into account the ability of a protein to provide
the correct proportions of the EAA for building new
proteins plus the unique roles of amino acids, such as
leucine, which provide a regulatory signal for initiating
protein synthesis. Eggs have traditionally been used as
the standard of comparison for measuring protein quality
because of their EAA profile and high digestibility. In
fact, egg protein quality is sufficiently high because
of surfeit levels of many EAAs, such that egg protein
can be mixed with inferior-quality proteins without
compromising its own quality.8 As a low-cost source of
high-quality protein, rich in EAA, eggs can improve
the overall nutritional quality of the diet.
There are at least 5 measures of protein quality used to
compare the ability of various dietary protein sources to
44 Nutrition Today, Volume 44
Copyright @ 2009 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. Unauthorized reproduction of this article is prohibited.
support human health and development. These include
the protein digestibility corrected amino acid score
(PDCAAS), protein efficiency ratio, biological value, net
protein utilization, and protein digestibility.13Y15 The
PDCAAS is the internationally approved method for
protein quality assessment,16 although other methods are
still widely used. Using the PDCAAS, eggs rank similar
to cow’s milk (see Table 1) for protein quality. Eggs are
graded highest, alongside beef, for protein digestibility,
and using the biological value, net protein utilization,
and the protein efficiency ratio, eggs rank highest
for protein quality among cow’s milk, beef, and soy.
Recognizing that there are limitations to all methods
of assessment of protein quality and that none of
these approaches rely on direct measurements of the
stimulation of muscle or whole body protein synthesis,
it is noteworthy that eggs rank consistently high across
all current measures.
The recent Dietary Reference Intakes for
macronutrients used the PDCAAS to determine dietary
protein requirements. The PDCAAS accounts for
the amino acid content of a food’s protein, its true
digestibility, and its ability to supply EAA in amounts
adequate to meet the requirements of a 2- to 5-year-old
child. This age group was used as the reference
standard because of the high demands for growth and
development.12
Values of PDCAAS higher than 100% are not used as
such but are truncated to 100%. The values shown in
Table 1 are the true PDCAAS values of several proteins,
including eggs. The truncation of PDCAAS values is
designed to make equal the power of high-quality proteins
to balance the amino acid composition of inferior
proteins. However, the limitation to this approach is
the assumption that a PDCAAS value greater than 1.0
does not provide any additional nutritional benefit.16
Based on studies providing protein with various
essential and non-EAA compositions,1 there is reason
to believe that natural dietary protein sources rich in
specific amino acids provide greater nutritional benefits
compared with others. Therefore, the truncation of
PDCAAS compromises its function and is not useful in
the context of mixed diets with proteins from a variety
of sources.
Energy From Eggs
All foods provide energy in the form of proteins, fats, and
carbohydrates. Eggs provide a nutrient-dense source of
energy from protein and fat, approximately 75 kcal per
large egg, plus several B vitamins, including thiamin,
riboflavin, folate, B12, and B6, which are required
for the production of energy by the body. A potential
metabolic advantage of eggs is that they provide energy
 Number 1  January/February, 2009
 Egg as a Source of Power, Strength, and Energy Food Science

Table 1. A Comparison of Quality Scores for Common Food Proteins: Egg, Milk, Beef, and Soy
Protein Protein Digestibility Corrected Biological Net Protein
Protein Efficiency Ratioa True Digestibility,b % Amino Acid Scorec Value (BV),d % Utilizatione
Egg white 3.8 98 118 100 94
Milk 3.1 95 121 91 82
Beef 2.9 98 92 80 73
Soy 2.1 95 91 74 61
a
A reflection of a food’s biological value, by measuring protein retention by body tissues (weight gain per gram of protein ingested).
b
Ratio of nitrogen absorbed from food to nitrogen ingested.
c
Takes into account the level of limiting amino acids in protein as well as true digestibility.
d
A measure of how efficiently food protein, once absorbed from the gastrointestinal tract, can be turned into body tissues. Egg white protein has a BV of 100,
the highest BV of any single food protein.
e
Takes into account both true digestibility and BV.
Sources: Schaafsma16 and Hoffman and Flavo.13

without causing a surge in blood sugar or insulin levels,
thereby avoiding potential ‘‘rebound’’ reduction in
blood glucose that is frequently associated with fatigue
and a general lack of energy.17,18
One group of researchers found that in 18 normal
participants, including egg proteins at breakfast resulted
in lower insulin responses compared with those noted
with consumption of otherwise identical breakfasts
containing ham proteins.17 Reduced blood glucose and
insulin response was also observed in a group of 12
healthy young men after eating a breakfast that provided
whole egg or yolk. The whole egg or yolk at breakfast
also increased cholecystokinin and gastric inhibitory
peptide levels and delayed gastric emptying.18 Egg
white alone, as well as the whole egg or yolk, resulted
in increased levels of gastric inhibitory peptide. These
observations are intriguing, given the roles of these
compounds in satiety and appetite regulation.
A longer term (16 weeks), larger (160 participants)
study evaluating a weight-loss diet showed that those
individuals who ate 2 eggs at breakfast each day lost
twice as much weight and had an 83% greater decrease in
waist circumference compared with those who ate a
bagel-based breakfast, suggesting that the inclusion of
protein-rich eggs at breakfast may help promote satiety
during weight loss.19 Finally, a study of 30 overweight
and obese women that evaluated whether there was any
weight management benefits associated with consuming
eggs as part of a healthful breakfast compared an egg
breakfast to an equal-weight, bagel-based breakfast that
provided the same amount of calories. When participants
ate the egg breakfast, they reported greater satiety and
significantly lowered their calorie intake over the next
24 hours compared with when they ate the bagel
breakfast. The researchers suggested that their findings
indicate the involvement of hormones, including insulin,
which regulates blood glucose levels.20 In total, this
work demonstrates a role for egg proteins as a
component of a balanced breakfast in stabilizing blood
glucose and insulin levels and in promoting satiety in
otherwise healthy, obese, overweight, and normal-weight
men and women.
Eggs are also rich in the EAA leucine, a nutrient that
works in concert with the insulin signaling pathway to
modulate glucose use by skeletal muscle.21 Whereas
total protein is important in providing substrates for
gluconeogenesis, leucine seems to uniquely regulate
oxidative use of glucose by skeletal muscle.21 These
leucine-specific mechanisms are believed to contribute
to a stable glucose environment (leucine may help spare
glucose) and to help modulate insulin responses.22
Egg protein is second only to milk protein in its leucine
content,23 making eggs one of the most concentrated
sources of leucine in the diet.
Eggs are also rich in the essential
branched-chain amino acid leucine,
which works in concert with the
insulin signaling pathway.
Strength and Power From Egg Protein
Strength is a measure of force, and power is the rate of
doing work, which is a function of force and velocity
(speed). For many consumers, increased protein intake is
synonymous with increased muscle size, power, and
strength. Although these beliefs were once considered
myth, a body of scientific literature does exist in support
of this perception.24 More specific to this article is the

Nutrition Today, Volume 44  Number 1  January/February, 2009 45

Copyright @ 2009 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. Unauthorized reproduction of this article is prohibited.
Food Science Egg as a Source of Power, Strength, and Energy
common belief that consumption of animal proteins
better supports gains in muscle mass and, subsequently,
muscle strength and power because they are higher
quality proteins. Eggs are rich in the EAAs needed for the
synthesis of muscle protein, and they are specifically
rich in leucine.7,23,25
Most research focuses on the relationship between
dietary protein intake and muscle mass,24 which is a key
component of physical strength and power.26 Muscle
protein and, therefore, muscle mass, strength, and
function are directly affected by protein intake in both
the young and the old.1 High dietary protein intakes
increase protein synthesis by increasing systemic amino
acid availability.1 Hoppe and coworkers27,28 conducted
studies to characterize associations between protein
intake and growth in young children and found that rates
of growth were higher and increases in muscle mass
were greater with increased protein intake. Low protein
intake or consumption of low-quality protein in elderly
persons may facilitate muscle loss,11,29,30 which can
ultimately lead to sarcopenia. Studies have shown that
elderly individuals experience increases in strength with
habitual consumption of increased dietary protein. In
very old men and women, the use of a protein/calorie
supplement was associated with greater gains in strength
and muscle mass when combined with a strength
training program compared with strength training
alone.31 Others have shown that supplementing the diet
with as few as 22 g of EAA (11 g twice a day) without
modifying physical activity increased lean body mass,
function, and strength in elderly participants with
impaired glucose intolerance.3,4,32 The anabolic effect of
exercise is amplified when combined with amino acids
or protein intake.32 More specifically, a dose-response
relationship between EAA concentrations in the blood
and muscle protein synthesis exists, such that muscle
protein synthesis increases as blood levels of EAA
increase.32Y35 Studies focusing on protein intake and the
muscle protein synthetic response to aerobic exercise
are limited. No differences were found in lean body mass
in previously unfit men and women in response to a
6-week endurance training program while consuming a
weight maintenance diet that provided 10% of calories
as protein with or without eggs.36 The researchers
speculated that significant changes in body composition
(ie, an increase in muscle tissue and decrease in fat)
might have been noted if the training period was
longer and protein intake was increased above the
Recommended Dietary Allowance (0.8 g/kg). The
mechanism to explain the dose relationship of plasma
EAA and muscle protein synthesis is unknown. However,
a potential mechanism is the unique role of leucine in
regulation of protein synthesis at the translation
initiation stage. Increases in the intracellular leucine
46 Nutrition Today, Volume 44
Copyright @ 2009 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. Unauthorized reproduction of this article is prohibited.
concentration, in combination with insulin, regulate
the signaling cascade for stimulation of the translation
initiation factors eIF4E, rpS6, and eIF4G.37
Given the unique complementary relationship between
leucine and glucose utilization by muscle, it would be
worthwhile to ascertain if a diet rich in leucine would
be advantageous to men and women undergoing
endurance training.21,38 Leucine is a critical element in
regulating muscle protein synthesis and may be the
key amino acid defining the increased needs for EAA
to optimize skeletal muscle mass.21 Increased tissue
levels of leucine combine with circulating insulin to
allow skeletal muscles to manage protein metabolism
and fuel selection in relation to diet composition.21
Together, insulin and leucine allow skeletal muscle
to coordinate protein synthesis with the existing
physiological state and dietary intake.37 Thus, when
intracellular levels of leucine are increased, leucine
has the ability to spare glucose and maintain blood sugar
levels during exercise and periods of food restriction.
This may be particularly important during periods of
endurance exercise when sparing of blood glucose is
important.22 Moreover, muscle recovery from exercise,
both resistance and endurance, seems to be dependent
on dietary leucine.37 Because eggs are an excellent,
nutrient-rich source of leucine, as well as other EAAs, it
is reasonable to ascertain that protein-related metabolic
benefits would be imparted to active individuals who
routinely consume eggs as part of a varied, balanced diet.
Beyond the standard measurements of protein quality,
the amount of EAA provided by eggs as a percentage
of protein is equal to or greater than other animal
proteins (see Table 2). This point is of particular
significance considering that muscle protein synthesis
is dependent on the level of EAA in the blood. A recent
study found that diets that included eggs as a protein
source provided significantly more EAA (28%) and
leucine (26%) than did egg-free diets where protein came
from other animal (chicken and beef) and vegetable
sources (N. Rodriguez, unpublished data).
For children and young individuals, consuming
high-quality protein is important to get the most EAA to
maximize growth, muscle gain, and strength. For elderly
individuals, getting a regular source of high-quality
protein is important for preventing age-related loss of
muscle mass. Protein sources that are rich in EAA,
inexpensive, and highly digestible and easy to consume
are important for the elderly population.
Summary
Eggs have traditionally been used as the reference
standard for measuring protein quality because of their
EAA profile and high digestibility. With regard to 5
 Number 1  January/February, 2009
 Egg as a Source of Power, Strength, and Energy
Table 2. Protein and Amino Acid Density of
Animal Proteins
Eggs 1% Milk Beefa
Protein density, % of 35 32 31.6
calories as protein
EAA density, % of 42 42.9 37.5
protein as EAA
Abbreviation: EAA, essential amino acid.
a
Beef values represent a composite of trimmed retail cuts, separable
lean, and fat trimmed to one-fourthYinch fat, choice, cooked.
Source: US Department of Agriculture Nutrient Database for Standard
Reference, Release 19.23
well-accepted measures of protein quality, eggs rank
highest in three, rank first alongside beef in another,
and rank second to cow’s milk with the current
internationally approved method PDCAAS. For people
who avoid milk for any reason, eggs become the highest
quality protein source in their diets.
Studies have shown that eggs promote satiety and that
the mechanism for this effect involves hormones known
to regulate blood glucose levels. Eggs are also rich in
EAAs needed for synthesis, maintenance, and repair of
muscle proteins. They are a rich source of EAA, including
leucine, a key element in regulating muscle protein
synthesis, particularly during recovery from exercise, as
well as in regulating the use of glucose by muscle tissue.
As a source of energy, as well as several nutrients
required for energy metabolism and a source of
high-quality protein, eggs help fuel the body and assist
in the building and maintaining of muscle tissue essential
for strength and power. The protein found in eggs is
superior to most and equal to other high-quality protein
sources routinely found in the diet. There is no higher
quality protein than that provided in eggs.
The protein found in eggs is superior
to most and equal to other
high-quality protein sources
routinely found in the diet. There is
no higher quality protein than that
provided in eggs.
Donald K. Layman, PhD, is a professor emeritus at the Department of
Food Science and Human Nutrition at the University of Illinois. Dr Layman’s
Nutrition Today, Volume 44  Number 1  January/February, 2009
Copyright @ 2009 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. Unauthorized reproduction of this article is prohibited.
Food Science
research focuses on protein and amino acid requirements, and his work
has helped to define roles of the branched-chain amino acids in skeletal
muscle metabolism.
Nancy R. Rodriguez, PhD, RD, CSSD, FACSM, is an associate
professor of Nutritional Sciences, University of Connecticut Sports Nutrition
Programs at the University of Connecticut. Dr Rodriguez is actively involved
in research on the relationships between exercise, protein intake, and
protein utilizations in different population groups.
Corresponding author: Donald K. Layman, PhD, University of Illinois, 437
Bevier Hall, 905 South Goodwin, Urbana, IL 61801 (dlayman@uiuc.edu).
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