Brown vs. white, double yolks, and other things people get wrong.

"Brown eggs are healthier than white eggs."

Not true. Shell color comes down entirely to the breed of hen, not nutrition or how the hen was raised. A brown egg and a white egg from hens with identical diets and living conditions are nutritionally the same. Brown eggs are often priced higher, but that's a market perception, not a nutritional fact.

"You should avoid eggs if you're watching your cholesterol."

This was standard advice for decades, but it's been substantially revised. For most people, dietary cholesterol has a smaller effect on blood cholesterol than saturated fat does, and current U.S. dietary guidelines no longer set a strict daily limit for the general population. Some individuals are more sensitive to dietary cholesterol than others, so this is genuinely worth a personal conversation with a doctor — but "eggs are universally bad for cholesterol" is an outdated blanket claim.

"A double yolk means the egg is fertilized or unsafe to eat."

Double yolks have nothing to do with fertilization. They happen when a hen's reproductive cycle releases two yolks close together and they end up packaged in the same shell — most common in younger hens whose laying cycle hasn't fully regulated yet. Double-yolk eggs are completely safe to eat and cook the same as any other egg, just with more yolk relative to white.

"You shouldn't eat raw or runny eggs, ever."

The real risk with raw or undercooked eggs is salmonella, and it's genuinely worth taking seriously — but it's also a manageable risk, not an absolute rule. In the US, pasteurized eggs are specifically treated to eliminate that risk and are safe to eat raw or runny. Standard fresh eggs from a reputable, well-handled source carry a low but non-zero risk, which is why guidance is more cautious for pregnant people, young children, older adults, and anyone immunocompromised.

For most healthy adults, a runny yolk from a fresh, properly refrigerated egg is a normal culinary choice, not a reckless one — the key factors are freshness, proper refrigeration, and who's eating it.

"Older eggs are lower quality eggs."

Age and quality aren't the same thing. A well-refrigerated egg stays safe and usable for 3 to 5 weeks past its pack date, and — somewhat counterintuitively — slightly older eggs actually peel more easily when hard-boiled than very fresh ones do. "Older" within that safe window doesn't mean "worse," it just means slightly different for certain cooking methods.