What percentage of children consume eggs/omelets and egg sandwiches, and does it differ by age or sex?

On any given day, 12% of children consume eggs/omelets and 5% consume egg sandwiches (data not shown). Children 2-5 years more likely to consume eggs/omelets as compared to those 6-11 years and 12-19 years (Figure 1; p<0.01). However, egg sandwich consumption is not statistically different by age. Furthermore, the percentage of children consuming eggs/omelets and egg sandwiches does not differ by sex (data not shown).

Figure 1

Prevalence (%) of consumption of eggs/omelets and egg sandwiches among children 2-19 years by age, WWEIA, NHANES 2017 – March 2020. ^a,bWithin egg category, estimates with different superscripts differ by age (p<0.01) based on a two-sided (more...)

Does consumption of eggs/omelets and egg sandwiches differ by race/ethnicity or family income?

Compared to non-Hispanic (NH) White and Black children, those of Hispanic origin are more likely to consume eggs/omelets. This finding is driven by differences in the younger age groups. Among 2-5 year olds, 31% of Hispanic children consume eggs/omelets versus 14% and 9% of NH White and NH Black children, respectively (p<0.01; data not shown). Moreover, Hispanic children 6-11 years are more likely than NH Black children to consume eggs/omelets on the intake day (18% versus 7%). However, the percentage of children consuming egg sandwiches does not differ by race/ethnicity (Figure 2).

Prevalence of egg/omelet consumption among children in the lowest family income group is higher than among those in the middle family income group (Figure 3).

Figure 2

Prevalence (%) of consumption of eggs/omelets and egg sandwiches among children 2-19 years, by race/ethnicity, WWEIA, NHANES 2017 – March 2020. ^a,bWithin egg category, percentage estimates with different superscripts differ by race/ethnicity (p<0.01) (more...)

Figure 3

Prevalence (%) of consumption of eggs/omelets and egg sandwiches among children 2-19 years, by family income as % of poverty level, WWEIA, NHANES 2017- March 2020. ^a,bWithin egg category, percentage estimates with different superscripts differ by family (more...)

From what sources are eggs/omelets and egg sandwiches obtained?

The principal source of both eggs/omelets and egg sandwiches among children is grocery stores (Figure 4). Fast food restaurants are also a notable source of egg sandwiches, accounting for more than one quarter of all reports.

Figure 4

Percentage (%) of egg/omelet and egg sandwich reports by source, children 2 - 19 years, WWEIA, NHANES 2017- March 2020. ³Includes supermarkets, warehouse clubs, specialty stores, and ethnic food stores. ⁴Includes restaurant with waiter/waitress service; (more...)

At what eating occasions are eggs/omelets and egg sandwiches consumed?

For both eggs/omelets and egg sandwiches, over two-thirds of items in these categories are consumed at breakfast (Figure 5). Among all age groups of children, over 50% of reports of these foods are consumed at breakfast (data not shown).

Figure 5

Percentage (%) of egg/omelet and egg sandwich reports by eating occasion at which they are consumed, children 2 - 19 years, WWEIA, NHANES 2017- March 2020. ^†Estimate is less precise than others presented due to small sample size.

How much energy do eggs/omelets and egg sandwiches provide to children who consume them?

Eggs/omelets provide on average 179 kilocalories to children who consume them on any given day, and egg sandwiches average more than double that amount (447 kilocalories; data not shown). This pattern of greater energy contribution from egg sandwiches is seen for all age groups of children (Table 1). Common non-egg ingredients such as bread, cheese, and meat explain why 46% of children who consume an egg sandwich on the intake day obtain a fifth or more of their total daily energy intake from these foods (data not shown).

Table 1

Mean daily contribution to energy per consumer of eggs/omelets and egg sandwiches and examples, children 2 – 19 years, WWEIA, NHANES 2017 – March 2020.

Does total daily intake of nutrients per 1,000 kilocalories differ between consumers and non-consumers of eggs/omelets and egg sandwiches?

Total daily intake of several nutrients differ between consumers and non-consumers of eggs/omelets on a 1,000 kilocalorie basis (Table 2). Protein, total fat, cholesterol, vitamin A, choline, vitamin D, and potassium intake are higher among consumers, but carbohydrate is lower. Findings related to total fat, cholesterol, carbohydrate, and choline are consistent across all age groups of children (data not shown). Some, but not all of these same differences are seen between children who consume an egg sandwich on the intake day and those who do not (Table 2).

Table 2

Mean daily intake from all foods and beverages of select nutrients per 1,000 kilocalories among consumers of eggs/omelets and egg sandwiches, children 2 – 19 years, 2017 – March 2020.

How much do eggs/omelets and egg sandwiches contribute to mean daily intakes of energy and nutrients among children who consume them?

Among consumers, nutrients provided by these foods that meet or exceed their average energy contributions are protein; total fat; saturated fat, vitamins A, B12, D, and E; sodium; and most notably, cholesterol and choline (Figure 7). Vitamin D is underconsumed by most children, whereas saturated fat and sodium are regularly consumed above their recommended limits (6). Common ingredients of egg sandwiches explain their overall larger contributions to nutrients relative to eggs/omelets. These ingredients include bread, which contributes carbohydrate and dietary fiber, components that are very low/not present in eggs, and cheese, which contributes protein, fat, saturated fat, calcium, and sodium.

Figure 7

Percentage (%) contributions of eggs/omelets and egg sandwiches to mean daily intakes of energy and selected nutrients among consumers, children 2 – 19 years, 2017 – March 2020. ¹See definition of “eggs” on page 8. ^† (more...)

Definitions

Consumer/non-consumer

In general, children who consumed eggs as eggs/omelets and/or an egg sandwich on the intake day were considered a “consumer,” whereas those who did not were considered a “non-consumer.” A total of 502 children were classified as consumers of eggs/omelets (252 males and 250 females), and 181 were consumers of egg sandwiches (92 males and 89 females). Classification as a consumer or non-consumer for this analysis has no implications as to habitual consumption.

Eating occasion

Designated by the respondent, eating occasions with the following English and Spanish names were grouped together: breakfast, desayano, and almuerzo; lunch, brunch, and comida; dinner, supper, and cena; and snack, drink, merienda, entre comida, botana, bocadillo, tentempie, bebida, and items consumed over an extended period of time. The time an eating occasion occurs has no implications as to its type, e.g., breakfast occasions could occur at all times of day and night.

Eggs

For this report, refers to items that are included in the What We Eat in America (WWEIA) Food Categories “Eggs and omelets” and “Egg/breakfast sandwiches” (see definition of “WWEIA Food Categories” below). Among children 2 – 19 years, these two Categories account for 71% of egg consumption, as measured in egg ounce equivalents (see definition of Food Patterns component- eggs” below). Notable exclusions from this analysis are eggs that 1) are a distinct component in a multi-component food other than sandwiches (e.g., cooked egg in fried rice; 1% of all egg consumed), or 2) serve as a functional ingredient (28% of all egg consumed). Eggs are included as functional ingredients in a variety of foods, including bakery products (e.g., cakes, cookies), bread items (e.g., waffles, cornbread), coatings on meat and vegetables (e.g., chicken nuggets/tenders, fried peppers), sauces and condiments (e.g., Hollandaise sauce, mayonnaise) and mixed dishes (e.g., meat loaf, lasagna).

Family income (as percentage of poverty level)

The ratio of family income to poverty expressed as a percentage. The Department of Health and Human Services’ poverty guidelines, which are based upon the number of persons in the family/household, were used as the poverty measure to calculate the ratio (7).

Food Patterns component-eggs

As described at https://www.ars.usda.gov/nea/bhnrc/fsrg/fped, the Food Patterns Equivalents Database defines all foods and beverages reported in WWEIA, NHANES in terms of amounts of 37 Food Patterns (FP) components. Translating intakes to FP components permits them to be evaluated with respect to the Dietary Guidelines for Americans (3). The Protein Foods group, of which eggs are included, are measured in ounce equivalents. Egg intake in ounce equivalents, inclusive of egg in all foods, is available on the FSRG website at https://www.ars.usda.gov/nea/bhnrc/fsrg/fpeddatatables.

Kilocalories

Scientific unit used in reporting the energy content of food; shortened to “calories” in casual usage in the U.S.

WWEIA Food Categories

Available at https://www.ars.usda.gov/nea/bhnrc/fsrg/wweia_categories, classifies each food and beverage reported in WWEIA, NHANES into one of 169 mutually exclusive categories. In contrast to the Categories’ item-by-item classification, this analysis classified as a group any foods that were represented in the dietary data by two or more items linked as having been consumed together into the most appropriate WWEIA Food Category. For example, if an egg sandwich was represented in the dietary data as white bread, butter, fried egg, and cheese, all these components would be assigned to the “egg sandwiches/breakfast sandwich” WWEIA Food Category along with similar items that were not represented by multiple foods, e.g., an item that assigned the food code 34001110 “Egg sandwich on white bread with cheese.” It is important to note that breakfast sandwiches that do not include egg (e.g., sausage biscuit) were excluded from this analysis. Consequently, in this brief, this category is termed “Egg sandwiches.”

Data source

Estimates in this data brief are based on one day of dietary intake data from WWEIA, NHANES 2017-March 2020 Prepandemic (8). Day 1 dietary data were collected in person using the 5-step USDA Automated Multiple-Pass Method for the 24-hour recall. A total of 4,091 individuals 2 – 19 years of age (2,068 males and 2,023 females) provided complete and reliable dietary intake data. In the race-specific analyses (see page 2), individuals who were multi-racial or of a racial group other than those listed (385 children, of whom 38 were consumers of eggs/omelets and 14 were consumers of an egg sandwich) were excluded. Likewise, in the income-specific analyses (also on page 2), individuals with missing family income information (413 children, of whom 41 were consumers of eggs/omelets and 18 were consumers of an egg sandwich) were excluded. Sample weights were applied in all analyses to produce estimates that were representative of the U.S. population for the years of collection. Intakes of energy and nutrients were calculated using the 2017-2018 and 2019-2020 versions of USDA’s Food and Nutrient Database for Dietary Studies (3). Intake of added sugars was calculated using the Food Patterns Equivalents Database for Use with WWEIA, NHANES 2017- March 2020 Prepandemic (9).

References

1.

USDA Agricultural Research Service. Food Data Central. https://fdc​.nal.usda.gov. Accessed November 1, 2024.

2.

Puglisi MJ, Fernandez ML. The health benefits of egg protein. Nutrients. 2020;14(14):2904. Published 2022 Jul 15. doi: 10.3390/nu14142904. [PMC free article: PMC9316657] [PubMed: 35889862] [CrossRef]

3.

Papanikolaou Y, Fulgoni VL 3^rd. Egg consumption in U.S. children is associated with greater daily nutrient intakes, including protein, lutein + zeaxanthin, choline, α-linolenic acid, and docosahexanoic acid. Nutrients. 2019;11(5):1137. Published 2018 May 22. doi:10.3390/nu11051137. [PMC free article: PMC6566164] [PubMed: 31121847] [CrossRef]

4.

Morales-Juárez A, Cowan-Pyle AE, Bailey RL, Eicher-Miller HA. Eating egg-rich diets and modeling the addition of one daily egg reduced risk of nutrient inadequacy among United States adolescents with and without food insecurity. J Nutr. 2024;154(11):3475–3484. doi: 10.1016/j.tjnut.2024.09.019. [PMC free article: PMC11827025] [PubMed: 39307281] [CrossRef]

5.

USDA Food Surveys Research Group. FNDDS Documentation and Databases. www​.ars.usda.gov/fsrg/fndds/download. Accessed January 13, 2025.

6.

U.S. Department of Agriculture and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Dietary Guidelines 2020-2025. 9th edition. December 2020. Available at: https://www​.dietaryguidelines.gov Accessed January 7, 2025.

7.

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation. Poverty guidelines. https://aspe​.hhs.gov/poverty-guidelines. Accessed January 10, 2025.

8.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics. NHANES Questionnaires, Datasets, and Related Documentation. https://wwwn​.cdc.gov/nchs/nhanes/. Accessed January 10, 2025.

9.

USDA Food Surveys Research Group. Food Patterns Equivalents Databases and SAS Datasets. www​.ars.usda.gov/fsrg/fped/download. Accessed January 13, 2025.

Sebastian RS, Crawford SB, Moshfegh AJ. Consumption of Eggs/Omelets and Egg Sandwiches by U.S. Children: What We Eat in America, NHANES 2017- March 2020. Food Surveys Research Group Dietary Data Brief No. 65. May 2025.