Eggnog is good for more than holiday cheer. It’s a calorie-dense, nutrient-rich drink that provides protein, calcium, and fat in an easy-to-consume liquid form. That combination makes it genuinely useful for recovery from illness, weight gain, and getting nutrients into people who can’t eat solid food. It also delivers some surprising benefits from its core ingredients: eggs, milk, and warming spices.
A Calorie-Dense Source of Key Nutrients
A single cup of traditional eggnog packs roughly 340 calories, about 19 grams of fat, nearly 10 grams of protein, and around 330 milligrams of calcium. That’s a significant nutritional punch in liquid form, which is exactly why it has practical uses beyond being a festive treat.
The protein comes from both eggs and milk. Calcium, critical for bone health, is well represented thanks to the dairy base. The fat content is high, mostly saturated from cream and egg yolks, but that caloric density is what makes eggnog valuable in specific situations where getting enough energy from food is a challenge.
Recovery and Weight Gain
Eggnog has a long history as a recovery drink. In the 19th century, doctors routinely prescribed it to patients recovering from typhoid fever, dysentery, diphtheria, surgery, and tuberculosis. They considered it an ideal vehicle for delivering calories and nutrients to people on liquid diets. The basic logic was sound: eggs provide protein and fat, milk adds calcium and more protein, sugar supplies quick energy, and the whole thing goes down easily when chewing is difficult or appetite is low.
That reasoning still holds. The University of Virginia Health System lists eggnog alongside commercial nutrition supplements like Ensure and Boost in its guidelines for high-calorie liquid diets, calling it “a great source of calories.” For someone recovering from surgery, dealing with a poor appetite due to illness, or trying to gain weight, a glass of eggnog delivers what a meal replacement shake does, just in a tastier package. It’s not a substitute for a balanced diet, but as a supplemental calorie source for people who need one, it works well.
Choline for Brain Health
One of eggnog’s less obvious benefits comes from egg yolks, which are one of the richest food sources of choline. Your body uses choline to produce acetylcholine, a chemical messenger in the brain involved in memory and learning. Acetylcholine levels naturally decline with age as the enzyme that converts choline becomes less efficient.
A study published in Lipids in Health and Disease found that a daily intake of 300 milligrams of egg yolk choline improved verbal memory in healthy middle-aged and older adults. Animal research has shown that egg-derived choline increases acetylcholine levels in the brain and improves both memory and learning ability. A single large egg yolk contains roughly 115 to 150 milligrams of choline, so a cup of eggnog made with two eggs gets you into a meaningful range. You’d still need other choline sources throughout the day, but eggnog contributes more than most people realize.
Benefits From the Spices
Traditional eggnog is seasoned with nutmeg, cinnamon, and sometimes ginger. These aren’t just flavor additions. Cinnamon has anti-inflammatory properties and has been shown to slightly lower blood sugar, which is a helpful counterbalance in a sugary drink. It also adds natural sweetness, which can allow you to use less added sugar if you’re making eggnog at home.
Nutmeg carries antioxidant and anti-inflammatory compounds and may support cardiovascular health. Ginger, when included, is particularly useful for settling the stomach. It helps with nausea and acid reflux, which makes ginger-spiced eggnog a surprisingly reasonable choice if your digestive system is feeling off during the holidays. The amounts in a single glass are small, but they’re not negligible, especially if you’re generous with the spice grater.
The Sugar Problem
The biggest drawback of eggnog is its sugar content. A Consumer Reports review of 30 commercial eggnogs found that most contain 15 to 17 grams of added sugar per half-cup serving, roughly four teaspoons. Some brands go as high as 25 grams. The American Heart Association recommends no more than 25 grams of added sugar per day for women and 36 grams for men, so a single half-cup serving of eggnog can eat up most of that allowance. And most people pour more than half a cup.
Light versions don’t always help as much as you’d expect. Some low-fat eggnogs cut calories and fat but keep the sugar nearly identical to the regular version. If sugar is your main concern, the lowest options in the Consumer Reports review were Straus Family Organic Eggnog and Bolthouse Farms Holiday Nog, each with 9 grams of added sugar per serving. Making eggnog at home gives you the most control, letting you cut the sugar significantly while keeping the protein, fat, and spice benefits intact.
Plant-Based Alternatives
If you’re avoiding dairy, plant-based eggnogs are widely available, but the nutritional tradeoffs are worth knowing. Most plant milks other than soy contain 1% protein or less, compared to about 3.3% in cow’s milk. That means an oat or almond-based eggnog delivers far less protein than the traditional version. Soy-based alternatives are the exception: soy drinks match or slightly exceed cow’s milk in protein content, making soy-based eggnog the closest nutritional substitute.
Fat content varies too. Almond and cashew milks retain moderate fat levels, while oat and rice milks are considerably lower. Plant-based versions also tend to lack the calcium, vitamin B12, and vitamin A found naturally in dairy, though many are fortified. If you’re drinking eggnog specifically for its nutritional density during recovery or weight gain, a soy-based version is your best plant-based bet. For other purposes, any version will still give you the spice benefits and holiday satisfaction.
Food Safety With Raw Eggs
Homemade eggnog traditionally uses raw eggs, which raises the question of salmonella risk. A microbiologist at Rockefeller University tested this by comparing store-bought eggnog with a homemade spiked version containing about 20% alcohol from rum and bourbon. After 24 hours, the homemade spiked version was completely sterile, while the store-bought product contained a range of bacteria. When the researchers deliberately added a heavy dose of salmonella (about 1,000 times more than a contaminated egg would naturally carry), the alcohol didn’t kill all of it within 24 hours, but the conditions were far more extreme than any real-world scenario.
The practical takeaway: alcohol does reduce bacterial risk in homemade eggnog, especially if the batch sits refrigerated for a day or more before serving. If you’re making a non-alcoholic version with raw eggs, the safest approach is to use pasteurized eggs or gently cook the egg-milk mixture to 160°F before cooling and assembling the drink. Store-bought eggnog uses pasteurized ingredients, so bacterial contamination from eggs isn’t a concern there.