--- title: Why You Should Eat Eggs on Your Salad description: Eating eggs on your salad actually helps you absorb more nutrients from the veggies, according to a new study. canonical: https://time.com/3900239/why-you-should-put-a-fried-egg-on-your-salad/ author: Alexandra Sifferlin article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-05-28T19:52:06.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:59:06.760Z article:section: Health og:title: Why You Should Eat Eggs on Your Salad og:description: Eating eggs on your salad actually helps you absorb more nutrients from the veggies, according to a new study. og:url: https://time.com/3900239/why-you-should-put-a-fried-egg-on-your-salad/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8ab32c0ad809eae7/6988520e06f2c1ccc433a631/poached-egg.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2800 og:image:height: 1575 og:image:alt: 123515499 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Why You Should Eat Eggs on Your Salad twitter:description: Eating eggs on your salad actually helps you absorb more nutrients from the veggies, according to a new study. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8ab32c0ad809eae7/6988520e06f2c1ccc433a631/poached-egg.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Why You Should Put a Fried Egg on Your Salad > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME Health Matters: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition Health Matters is one of seven email newsletters published by TIME, the news organization founded in 1923. The latest health news and expert advice on living well. Health Matters makes the fast-moving world of health more useful, surprising and human, from the latest science and medical breakthroughs to practical ideas for living better. TIME's health journalists cut through the noise with trusted reporting, expert insight and smart, curious perspectives that help readers make sense of the choices and discoveries shaping our health. 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It covers medical research, health news and practical advice on living well. #### Where can I get reliable health news by email? Health Matters is TIME's daily health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free daily newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ## Video: The Truth About Fat [Watch (HLS stream): The Truth About Fat](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/uYGhfNfS.m3u8) (5:15)  _Published 2014-06-12. When you want to lose weight or get healthy, what is the first thing you would normally cut from your diet? If you said fat, you're not alone_ by [Alexandra Sifferlin](https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/) ## Alexandra Sifferlin May 28, 2015 7:52 PM UTC  Asparagus with poached egg, pancetta and croutons Asparagus with poached egg, pancetta and croutons Getty Images by [Alexandra Sifferlin](https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/) ## Alexandra Sifferlin May 28, 2015 7:52 PM UTC Eating eggs with your salad actually helps you absorb more nutrients from the veggies, according to a new study, which builds upon earlier research about eating fat and vegetables in combination. In a small study, [published in the _American Journal of Clinical Nutrition_](http://m.ajcn.nutrition.org/content/early/2015/05/27/ajcn.115.111062.abstract?papetoc), researchers had male volunteers eat different versions of a mixed-vegetable salad. One salad had no eggs, one had 1.5 scrambled eggs and one had three scrambled eggs. The test salads had tomatoes, shredded carrots, baby spinach, lettuce, and Chinese wolfberry and 3g of canola oil. Their goal was to see how well the men absorbed carotenoids—a kind of antioxidant—from the salad. By testing the mens’ blood, the researchers discovered that the men who ate the salads with eggs had higher levels of carotenoids in their system. The effect was higher for when the men ate the three eggs with their salad, but the researchers say that two eggs should be enough for a significant effect. What’s so special about eggs? It’s the fat in the yolk. Prior research, including research from the authors of the new study, show that eating vegetables with a fat can increase absorption of certain nutrients. That’s because carotenoids are fat-soluble compounds, which means fats help them enter the blood stream. “We believe it’s the lipids or fat in the yolk that are helping,” says study author Wayne Campbell, a professor of nutrition science at Purdue University. The researchers chose to study eggs because they are a common salad-bar topping, and they decided to scramble them to make sure the men in the study were eating the whole eggs, especially the yolks. But if you eat a salad with a poached egg on top, that can help too. “If \[one egg\] was the only source of lipids or fats, it may not be optimal, however, if you are also including some fat-containing salad dressing or some cheese, those will all contribute to the total amount of fats in your meal and that’s helpful,” says Campbell. Next time you’re having a salad for lunch, don’t get the dressing on the side. And definitely feel free to put some eggs on it. ## Transcript [ MUSIC ] There's something we all enjoy about staying for dinner. You ever thought why? What was on your dinner table when you were younger? Chances are it had a lot to do with, what your doctor was telling you is healthy. Building a strong healthy body is like building a strong, beautiful building. If the foundation is weak, the whole building will be weak. It takes five fingers to point the way to healthful eating habits. Well, here we go. For years, the government published dietary guidelines. Meant to keep Americans healthy. There's a great deal to learn. Tell me what you eat, and I'll tell you what you are. The body needs certain substances to live and grow. And remember, your body isn't just like an automobile. For years, the key measures of those guidelines were the same, cut fat from your diet. The committee's original report urged Americans to reduce their risk of heart attack. By reducing their intake of cholesterol down to the equivalent of about one egg a day. And those guidelines had an effect. From 1977 to 2012, per capita consumption of eggs fell by 9 %, beef by 37 %, whole milk by 72 %. Calories from saturated fat fell, while calories from supposedly safe carbohydrates increased. As one expert put it, it was a vast nutritional experiment. With nearly a million American's a year dropping dead from heart disease in the mid 80s, we had to try something. Nearly four decades later results are in. The experiment was a failure. Americans are sicker than they've ever been before. The prevalence of diabetes has gone up 157 % from 1980 to 2011. Nearly one in ten Americans now has the disease. Causing the public health system $ 245 billion a year. Heart disease is still the number one killer in the country. Americans are as obese as ever. So, what went wrong? Good old granola. Great for taste but loaded with fat. It doesn't take much of imagine a leap to assume that fat would make us fat, clog our arteries and raise the risk of heart disease. It turns out that saturated fat is a lot more complicated than we think. Carbohydrates and fats are nutrients. Like man, you need nutrients to live and grow. [ MUSIC ] Firstly, there are two kinds of cholesterol. LDL which is linked to heart disease and HDL which can be protective. Fats that course through the blood are known as triglycerides and high levels of those are linked to heart disease. Saturated fat raises LDL cholesterol but also raises HDL. Moving LDL buildup on arterial walls. So raising both, makes saturated fat a cardio wash. One key piece of information is that LDL seems to come in two forms. Large and fluffy, small and dense. Those smaller particles are linked to heart disease, while the larger ones are mostly benign. Saturated fat increases the number of large particles. The opposite happens with carbs. I don't get it. Researchers have long since discovered the kind of fats found in olives and in fish like salmon. Are actually heart protective. Now it turns out the fats found in meat and dairy, aren't as bad as we feared before. So that means by focusing so much on fats. We may actually have been making ourselves sicker. So, she brings up the subject of reduced- fat cheese. It's a fat- free [ UNKNOWN ]. Fat- free, cholesterol free. Low- fat granola. Reduced- fat Kettle chips. Reduced- fat Chips Ahoy. Lowfat cottage cheese. Non- fat yogurt is the perfect example. The thinking for consumers was simple. Fat was dangerous. This product had no fat. Therefore, it must be healthy. It's non- fat, which means less calories. [ MUSIC ] But amid the confusion about fat, we end up replacing it in our diets with sugars and carbohydrates, which meant our calorie intake was actually going up. When carbs and things like corn and white bread are ingested into your body, their converted into sugars. Those sugars convert to insulin cuz it's fat cells go into storage overdrive, leading to weight gain. Since fewer calories are then left to fill the body, you begin to feel hungry it means our metabolism begins to slow down in effort to save energy, we eat more and we gain more weight, never quite feeling full. As this process repeats, our cells become more resistant to insulin, which causes us to gain more weight, which increases insulin resistance in a vicious circle. Cut calories, and people just get hungrier. Obesity, diabetes, high triglycerides and low HDL cholesterol can all follow. Study after study has found it's very difficult to lose weight on a very low- fat diet. Possibly because fat and meat can produce a sense of satiety, that's hard to achieve with carbs, making it easier to simply stop eating. But it isn't just the increase in carbs that affects us. These processed, low saturated fat alternatives, come loaded with sugars, salt, preservatives, and even some unhealthy fats. So what's the real alternative? As one extra puts it, the cold hard truth about diet is that the only way to eat well, is to eat well. You'll be happier and you'll be healthier, if you focus on real whole foods, whether they have fat or not. Got it. 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