Just Egg vs Real Egg

Animal product replacements can contribute to a more sustainable and ethical life. Unfortunately, they often carry negative health impacts, and it's important to weigh these trade-offs in making an informed decision. 

"Just Egg" is an egg replacement. While I haven't cooked with it yet to ascertain taste and cooking behavior, I have checked out the nutritional information. Let's see how it stacks up against a real egg.

Here's the manufacturer's official website for the product. For a single 3tbsp serving, we have 70 calories. 45 calories are from fat, with 0g of saturated fat, 1.5g of polyunsaturated fat, and 3g of monounsaturated fat. There's 1g of carbohydrates, and 5g of protein.

The exact nutritional content of eggs depends on exactly how the chickens were raised - chickens fed corn and soybeans will have a much worse fatty acid profile than pasture-raised chickens. As natural products, there's variation, so all figures would be averages. Incredible Egg has nutrition facts available for download. These details have 70 calories in a large egg, with 5g of fat, 0g carbs, and 6g protein. The fat is 1.5g saturated, 1g polyunsaturated, and 2g monounsaturated.

The Just Egg has 0g of cholesterol, while an egg contains 185mg of cholesterol. Dietary cholesterol probably does not impact blood cholesterol or heart disease at all, and it's an important precursor for vitamin D and endocrine function. The Real Egg wins again.

The Just Egg replaces 1.5g of saturated fat with 0.5g polyunsaturated fat and 1g of monounsaturated fat. Contrary to popular belief, saturated fat is totally fine, and in fact a necessary component for healthy endocrine function. Losing saturated fat is a point against the Just Egg, though monounsaturated fat is uncontroversially good, too.

The polyunsaturated fat content is a bit more controversial. The fat used in Just Egg is canola oil, a highly processed vegetable oil with a lot of omega-6 fatty acids and a decent amount of ALA omega-3 fatty acids. It is likely that a balance of 1:1 is optimal, with 5:1 being good, and 10:1 bad. 

I expect that typical cheap Real Eggs have a similar O-3:O-6 ratio to canola oil (and therefore Just Eggs), since feedlots typically include massive amounts of corn and soy, both of which are full of O-6 fatty acids. The Real Egg wins here due to the lower quantity of polyunsaturated fatty acids.

Pasture-raised chickens eat insects and other foods, which increases the O-3 content and reduces O-6. This makes them an even better choice.

The Just Egg has 1g less protein and 1g more carbohydrate, making it an inferior source of protein per calorie than a Real Egg. 

Let's dig into the protein quality. Real Eggs have some of the best protein digestibility and amino acid ratio available, and has the highest Net Protein Utilization of any animal protein with a total PDCAAS of 100. The Just Egg uses a mung bean protein isolate, with digestibility information in this article. The article mentions anti-nutritional factors that are "partially or completely removed or degraded... according to the firm." Mung bean protein is deficient in methionine and cysteine, and is only 84% digestible. This analysis gives a PDCAAS of 55, which is pretty poor.

If we accept the digestibility figures, then a single 70 calorie Real Egg delivers 100% of 6g of protein, while a 70 calorie serving of Just Egg provides only 84% of 5g of protein, or 4.2g of protein. To absorb an equivalent amount of protein, you'd need 1.43 servings of Just Egg - 100 calories for 6g of protein.

Just Eggs have virtually no micronutrients. Real Eggs contain a good amount of B vitamins, including 20% of your daily requirement of vitamin B12, a common deficiency in plant-based diets.

Finally, let's talk price. As of this writing, WalMart carries a 12oz jug of Just Egg for $3.94. This contains 8 servings, with a cost of $0.49 per serving . Costco has organic, Certified Humane, cage-free eggs at $7.39 for 24, with a cost of $0.31 per serving. Kroger carries the Happy Egg Co pasture-raised eggs at $4.49 for a 12 pack, or $0.37 per serving.

The Just Egg is worse than a Real Egg along every health metric and costs more. This may be worthwhile if you believe that pasture-raised chickens have unacceptably poor life quality.