Giada De Laurentiis Has Banned Eggs for Breakfast. Here’s Why

When I first heard that chef and cookbook author Giada De Laurentis refuses to eat eggs for breakfast, I for sure raised an eyebrow. Eggs are personally one of my most favorite things to eat for breakfast.

Besides tasting great, they’re so versatile. You can scramble it with veggies for a yummy omelet, add a sunny-side-up egg to your avocado toast (or baked in your avocado), or pepper up a hard-boiled or poached one. It’s the perfect accompaniment to some fruit and coffee in the morning.

The benefits of eggs for breakfast

There are actually some benefits to eating the yolky goodness first thing in the morning. For one, adults who eat eggs for breakfast lose 65 percent more weight, according to a study published in the International Journal of Obesity.

And you know all that hoopla about them being high in cholesterol? The same study proved that levels of both HDL (the “good”) and LDL (the “bad”) cholesterol, as well as triglycerides, were not affected over the course of two months. Eggs are good for feeding your muscles, as they contain about 6 grams of protein in each one.

They also have choline, an essential nutrient known for stimulating brain development and function. And lastly, eggs could protect your eyes from UV-related exposure or damage because of the leutin and zeaxanthin they contain.

Is there a reason we eat eggs in the morning?

The internet has theories, but we seem to keep getting back to the book All About Eggs: Everything We Know About the World’s Most Important Food, which explains it. Here’s a summary:

Apparently in the Middle Ages, the Europeans decided that two large meals would suffice instead of three because of theories that it would be “gluttonous” to eat before dinner. (We know—what?) So breakfast was actually only allowed to be consumed by children, the elderly, and manual laborers (who needed energy in the morning).

It wasn’t until 1669 that an English medical writer, Tobias Venner, wrote about eating eggs for breakfast in a cookbook called The Closet of Sir Kenelm Digby Knight Opened.The phrase in the book was “two new-laid-eggs for breakfast,” which suggests that perhaps eggs are a breakfast food because chickens lay eggs in the morning. Though they also lay eggs later in the day too, so we don’t really know.

Either way, the English soon began to eat dinner later and later, which created the need to eat earlier. (Duh, because, hunger.)

By the 1800s, breakfast became a real thing. With the Industrial Revolution, workers really needed the sustenance of a hearty breakfast. By the Second Industrial Revolution, the full English breakfast that the country is known for today was born: you know, eggs with beans, toast, sausage, etc.

Why Giada says “no” to an egg breakfast

We’d be lying if we said we weren’t a little perplexed by Giada’s refusal to eggs in the morning—but once we actually discovered the reason, we get it.

It turns out that Giada grew up in Rome, Italy, where eggs aren’t a common breakfast food. In fact, Italians traditionally prefer to eat starchy carbs in the morning—cookies, cornetti (a type of Italian croissant), and bread.

While Giada isn’t so much into the sweet stuff, she does still eat carbs in the morning: savory grains, like oatmeal or brown rice. Okay, okay, we can definitely get on that train.

The chef still likes the taste of eggs, she just eats them at more appropriately Italian times. “We can eat eggs for lunch and dinner, like in a frittata, but not breakfast,” she says.

Want to know more about Giada’s loyalty to her home country’s breakfast food? Be sure to check out the video below!

 

What do you think about Giada banning eggs from her mornings? Do you eat eggs for breakfast? Tell us your favorite way to make ‘em!