In this LAB note
Question · Hypothesis · Method · Results · What Failed · What We Learned · What Changed at MOMS
Question
A 240-gram dose of egg white is about seven large egg whites and roughly 26 grams of protein. Do the recipes that use it end up with more protein than the 85 that use no egg at all?
Hypothesis
We expected egg-white recipes to run higher in protein, because egg white is close to pure protein (about 10.7 g per 100 g with no fat). We also expected them to run lower in fat, since the yolk is where an egg keeps its fat.
Method
We pulled all 201 recipes from the MOMS recipe database and grouped them by egg source: egg white only (59 recipes), egg white plus whole egg (39), whole egg only (18), and no egg (85). For each group we averaged protein, fat, calories, fiber and Score, then checked how egg-white grams track fat, protein and Score inside the 98 recipes that use it. Egg-white doses cluster tightly: 195 g in 43 recipes and 240 g in 28, so 71 of 98 use one of those two amounts. Per large egg white (about 34 g), USDA Foundation Foods data list roughly 4 g protein and no fat, so 240 g is about seven whites and 195 g about six. For outside context we used Van Vliet et al. (2017, Am J Clin Nutr), a crossover trial in 10 resistance-trained men that compared whole eggs (18 g protein, 17 g fat) with egg whites (18 g protein, no fat) after exercise. Recipes examined in detail: EI-W1-CLEANSE-016-V1, EI-W1-CLEANSE-017-V1, EY-W1-ENERGY-002-V1 and EY-W1-ENERGY-001-V1.
Results
Protein did not separate the groups: egg-white-only recipes average 33.0 g, no-egg recipes 33.3 g, whole-egg-only 32.7 g and egg white plus whole egg 32.4 g. Calories were also flat (373 vs 377 kcal for egg-white-only vs no-egg). Fat did separate them: egg-white-only recipes average 7.3 g, no-egg recipes 10.8 g, egg white plus whole egg 11.7 g and whole-egg-only 13.5 g. Inside the 98 egg-white recipes, more egg-white grams goes with less fat (correlation -0.59) and a little more protein (+0.46). EI-W1-CLEANSE-016-V1 shows the pattern at its cleanest: Lentils 55 g plus Egg White 240 g, Coconut Milk 279 ml, Pineapple 75 g, Carrot 60 g and 1 g Monk Fruit give 298.1 kcal, 32 g protein, 5.6 g fat and 7.1 g fiber, labeled Light with Score 16. EY-W1-ENERGY-001-V1 adds Egg 55 g to Egg White 170 g and Black Beans 80 g and reaches 34.5 g protein with 11.7 g fat, Score 16.
What Failed
Three things cut against a tidy story. First, the Score does not reward this: egg-white-only recipes average 14.8 against 15.1 for no-egg recipes, and inside the egg-white group the correlation between egg-white grams and Score is -0.13, so lower fat is not something our Score is tracking. Second, egg white is not what sets fat. EI-W1-CLEANSE-017-V1 uses the same 240 g of Egg White as recipe 016 but carries 11.5 g fat (versus 5.6 g) because it adds Cashew 18 g and Oat Milk 182.7 ml, and EY-W1-ENERGY-002-V1 pairs Egg White 195 g with Coconut Milk 195 ml, Soy Milk 150 ml and Cashew 13.5 g for 13.3 g fat, above the no-egg average. The fat gap is an association across formulations, not an isolated effect of the egg white. Third, less fat is not automatically better: in Van Vliet et al., whole eggs produced a greater post-exercise muscle protein synthesis response than egg whites at the same 18 g protein (P = 0.04), and our database cannot say anything about that outcome.
What We Learned
Egg white is not how our shakes reach their protein. Nearly every recipe is built to clear the same protein floor, so egg-white and no-egg shakes end up in the same place, about 33 g. What egg white changes is how the remaining fat budget gets spent: it supplies roughly 26 g of protein at 240 g with essentially no fat, which leaves room for the cashews, coconut milk or whole egg that then decide the final fat number.
What Changed at MOMS
We now treat egg-white grams as a fat-budget decision rather than a protein decision. When a recipe is already at its protein floor, we no longer add egg white to push protein higher; we decide between egg white and whole egg by how much fat the rest of the recipe needs, and we record which ingredient carries each recipe's fat so a low-fat result is not credited to the egg white by default.
References
Van Vliet S, et al. Consumption of whole eggs promotes greater stimulation of postexercise muscle protein synthesis than consumption of isonitrogenous amounts of egg whites in young men. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 2017;106(6):1401-1412. | U.S. Department of Agriculture, FoodData Central. Egg, white, raw (Foundation Foods; large egg white about 34 g, 10.7 g protein per 100 g).
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