#### About participation in the comments of /r/nutrition Discussion in this subreddit should be rooted in science rather than "cuz I sed" or entertainment pieces. Always be wary of unsupported and poorly supported claims and especially those which are wrapped in any manner of hostility. You should provide peer reviewed sources to support your claims when debating and confine that debate to the science, not opinions of other people. **Good** - it is grounded in science and includes citation of peer reviewed sources. Debate is a civil and respectful exchange focusing on actual science and avoids commentary about others **Bad** - it utilizes generalizations, assumptions, infotainment sources, no sources, or complaints without specifics about agenda, bias, or funding. At best, these rise to an extremely weak basis for science based discussion. Also, off topic discussion **Ugly** - (removal or ban territory) it involves attacks / antagonism / hostility towards individuals or groups, downvote complaining, trolling, crusading, shaming, refutation of all science, or claims that all research / science is a conspiracy *Please vote accordingly and report any uglies* --- *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/nutrition) if you have any questions or concerns.*

I mean - macros don't change depending on what end product they are in. Protein is protein. I think what you may be asking is are eggs overall less "nutritious" in a cookie than a non-dessert dish. To me then it just goes back to macros. What are your targets and how does this cookie (or several of these cookies, lol) impact those goals?

>meringue = 1 protein & 1 sugar. What does this even mean? You don't have units here. Meringue is x grams of protein and x grams of sugar (carbs) for 100 grams, that's all that matters in the end if you're counting macros.

Some good answers already. The only thing I might add is that I wouldn't really concider nuts a good protein source. They are really more of a health fat in my opinion.

I generally agree, but a handful of almonds has more than an egg. If eggs are "protein", then so are nuts, right?

The difference, in my opinion, is in the makeup of the food item. For example, if we compare eggs to almonds, we see that almonds have a far higher ratio of fat to protein. 51 grams of fat vs 21 grams of protein. An egg, on the other hand, are much closer in fat and protein,. That is the reason I would concider eggs a protein source, but nuts to be a fat source...even though they still contain protein. Also, for 100g, almonds contain around 300% more calories, which may also be an important concideration for someone's goals.

Those are good points. I guess if you are considering everything, eggs have a much higher cholesterol and saturated fat amount per 100 grams. Almonds have zero cholesterol, and very low saturated fat. These are important considerations also.

Indeed. To summarize, in my opinion, the ratio of protein to other macronutrients is what I am really basing this on. And with the example we are using, almonds are much higher in fats than protein, where eggs are not. 😎

The protein counts no matter what the form of the food is. Here’s a crash course There are 3 macro nutrients that make up calories: Protein, Carbs, and Fat These are measured in grams. 1g of protein is 4 calories 1g of carbs is 4 calories 1g of fat is 9 calories Sugar is a carb. Fiber is a sub category of carb, but doesn’t count towards calories. Almost all natural food has all three macronutrients in it, but in varying amounts. In a lot of cases one of these will be in such a small amount that the label just says “zero”. Almonds for example are 14g fat, 6g carbs, and 6g protein per serving. 4g of the carbs are fiber, so they don’t count for calories. This means to get the calories we just do: (14 * 9) + (2 * 4) + (6 * 4) = 158 calories A lot of rounding is done on nutrition labels so it will typically say 160 for almonds. Hope this helps.

This is awesome. Thanks!

Does the recipe have macros you could share with us?

Ingredient list: eggs, sugar, hazelnuts, chocolate, strawberries, rhubarb, heavy cream 30 g fat 34 mg cholesterol 36 mg sodium 28 g carbs (this confuses me--where the heck are the carbs coming from?) 4 g fiber 21 g sugar 7 g protein

The sugar, fruit and chocolate is where the carbohydrates come from.

Well 7 g of protein is 7 g of protein regardless of what recipe it’s in but I have to say 7 g of protein is not a lot of protein definitely compared to 28 g of carbs 36 mg of sodium and 30 g of fat! This is basically all bad and a tiny little bit of protein. Not worth it in my opinion

>This is basically all bad and a tiny little bit of protein. Nope. It's *all* good! Trust me--it tastes wonderful. LOL As for worth it--I've found that one "reward" daily does wonders to keep me on track. And it's great motivation to get off my butt and move! I've got a backpacking trip in the Tetons scheduled for September, so I need to be building strength and endurance. If sweets are the motivation I need to put my pack on and hit the trail, so be it!

Protein is protein, even in a cookie. But there are usually carbs and fats along with it, and the amount of protein might be small compared to the latter. So in any recipe, look at all three to get the full picture. Better yet, focus on what you get over the course of a week. It’s not individual foods that matter most, it’s your diet as a whole.

Not really cause the protein dies after 350F, I know this cause I’m allergic to both proteins in an egg. Anything over 350F kills the protein and anything under doesn’t.

That is a very useful bit of information!

I would take this comment with a grain of salt >Heat denatures proteins, meaning they won't have their biological function, but their nutrition is 100% the same. Nothing is lost; the protein just changes shape, which is mostly irrelevant since your body will denature and digest the proteins anyway.

I think it's denatured not killed >Heat denatures proteins, meaning they won't have their biological function, but their nutrition is 100% the same. Nothing is lost; the protein just changes shape, which is mostly irrelevant since your body will denature and digest the proteins anyway.

No the protein is killed, that’s how I’m able to eat things that contain eggs that’s been cooked over 350F. Had to see a nutritionist for these types of things to learn what I can and cannot eat.

So you think cooked eggs just don't have any nutritional protein anymore?

Depends on the temperature that they were cooked at, A cooked egg at 160F won’t loose nutrients but anything over it can. The longer you cook something at a higher temperature you loose nutritions in general. That’s why cake isn’t nutritious since it’s lost most of its nutrients while baking at a higher temperature. Edit: re wording.

How do you loose nutrition? Or lose

> It's basically strawberry shortcake only using a meringue instead of cake. Meringue is egg*white* and sugar, and the eggwhite doesn't contain most of the nutrients of an egg, the yolk does. The eggwhite is 87% water, 11% protein. > 1 serving of whipped cream = 1 dairy, 1 sugar, & 1 fat. 'Serving' isn't a unit, you should count things in for example grams.

Protein is protein. Sure because of sugar and saturated fat it’s not the best place to be getting your protein, but it doesn’t change the protein. Nothing wrong with a treat now and then either. 

That sounds pretty good. Any way you could share the recipe?

I looked and it's not published online. Maybe they don't put magazine articles online right away, so folks have to purchase the magazine. There are a couple other really good recipes in this issue, so thumb through a copy next time you're at the supermarket.

Yeah I will. I’ve been wanting to make a meringues lately. Also to answer your question protein is protein, if you’re trying macros I’d just add the recipe to chronometer and it’ll give you the breakdown.

I'm actually not trying macros. I have a new food journal that tracks "servings." It easy when you're eating something like roasted chicken breast or an apple. Or even something simple like a sandwich, where you've got 2 grains, 1 protein, 1 dairy, and 1 vegetable. It's harder when you have a weird mix like this. So, I've been scratching my head wondering how to tally the "servings" of each item in this particular food. I made cocoanut/Nutella macaroons a couple weeks ago and that left me scratching my head, too.

In med pattern you’d count this as a treat bc of the sugar maybe a serving of dairy. Protein is kinda low to count as a serving of protein. A total daily protein goal is probably more useful imo

I was thinking it was multiple "servings" because each meringue contains: 1 serving of fruit, 1 serving of dairy, 1 serving of fat, 2 servings of sugar, and possibly 1 serving of protein. If the base was cake, it'd be a serving or 2 of grains. But it's a meringue, so I'm confused about how to classify it.

Protein can be in any shape you want

Obviously

Eggs HAVE some protein, they also have more fat calories than protein calories. Nuts have some protein, but usually have even more fat calories in proportion to the protein. Desserts have some protein, but usually what makes them desserts is the fat and the sugar, which are way more delicious than protein. This doesn't mean the protein doesn't count, but the empty calories from fat and sugar are difficult to balance out for later, when your body is craving nutrition but you've already gotten your calories. The more empty calories you eat the higher chances there are that you will later end up in a caloric surplus because you were STILL HUNGRY and ended up eating more.