About Hard Boiled Egg
Hard boiled eggs can be made into a number of tasty treats. They can be eaten on their own, made into deviled eggs, sliced up and put on salads and made into egg salad for sandwiches. To hard boil an egg you need to put your eggs into a pan with cold water and bring the contents of the pan to a boil for at least 15 minutes, otherwise you'll get soft boiled eggs, something else entirely. When removed from the water and with the shell peeled away, the egg will be solid.
History
The hard boiled egg has played a significant role in history, as it is associated with one of America's holidays, Easter. While Easter has come to be a Christian holiday and is the day that Christ was supposed to have risen from the dead, this was not always its significance. Farther into the past, Easter was actually called Eostara, which was a pagan holiday that celebrated the Teutonic goddess Eostre. Her symbols were bunnies and eggs, which symbolized fertility. This is where we get the idea of eggs and bunnies at Easter. The idea of hard-boiling and decorating eggs, and having Easter baskets, came over to America from Germany, where the practice still flourished at the time of mass German immigration to the States in the 19th century.
Function
Eggs in general, including hard boiled eggs, provide a lot to humans nutritionally, and because they are available year round, they are one of the more perfect foods available to us. One whole boiled egg provides tryptophan, selenium, iodine, vitamin B2, protein, molybdenum, vitamin B12, phosphorus, vitamin B5 and vitamin D. Eggs also provide choline, a necessary ingredient for good health because it is needed to keep folic acid levels from decreasing. In addition, choline is part of a necessary neurotransmiter called acetylcholine that carries messages to and from the nerves.
Misconceptions
Not very long ago it was thought that eggs, including hard boiled eggs, were bad for you because of the cholesterol in them, and many people quit eating them as a result. However, studies have shown that most of the cholesterol in eggs does not enter the bloodstream, and as such makes them a healthy food to eat.
Benefits
Eating hard boiled eggs definitely provides health benefits in that eggs provide choline. Choline is part of two molecules called phosphatidylcholine and sphingomyelin, of which there are a lot in the brain. In fact, they account for a high percentage of your brain's total mass. Because of this, choline is essential for good brain function and health. Eggs can also promote healthy weight loss. According to one randomized controlled trial, the group that ate eggs for breakfast as opposed to bagels lost twice the amount of weight as the non-egg eaters did.
Warning
One thing to keep in mind with hard boiled eggs are that they will only keep in the refrigerator for about five to seven days, so it is not safe to eat them after that. Another is that you don't want to hard-boil an egg in the microwave, unless you want it to explode. Finally, eggs that have been in your refrigerator for a while without being consumed may be difficult to peel when you hard-boil them.
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