Eggstra, Eggstra, read all about it…Man Cracks The Code On The Nutritional Value Of Eggs And Shares It With Everyone.
Before writing this blog post, I always imagined myself standing somewhere in a huge crowd of people shouting these words.
But, I probably wouldn’t just talk about eggs, I’d “school” everyone on the food we’re eating, and the problems its causing.
Would you stop and listen to me or would you hurry by as if I’m the annoying salesman who just wants to sell something?
Well, today I want you to stand and listen to my sales pitch because you just might learn something about eggs.
Let’s get something straight…all eggs aren’t the same.
I know you want to believe they are, but they aren’t.
It can get confusing because its just too many damn eggs out there when you go to the store.
What eggs are best and which ones should you buy when at the market?
A few years ago, I would walk into the grocery store and grab the cheapest eggs.
It didn’t matter to me what brand of eggs they were as long as they were cheap.
Like most people out there, I thought an egg was just an egg.
This was before I focused on the nutritional value eggs provided.
It took me some time to crack the egg code but I’m glad to share my secrets.
Do the terms cage free,free range, or pasture raised confuse you?
Most people don’t read labels especially when they just want a dang egg.
I vividly remember standing in the dairy aisle with that ‘wtf” look on my face.
I knew I wasn’t the only one.
I would then grab some cheap eggs and march to the check out line.
See for me, confusion always led back to simplicity.
Why should I spend extra money on something, I didn’t understand?
All eggs aren’t created equal and sometimes the higher cost can be justified..
Sure, you have white eggs and brown eggs but it doesn’t matter when you look at them in terms of nutrition.
So, without further ado, let’s get things crackin’ and start talkin’ eggs.
Get Your Eggucation
Booty Eggs– If you haven’t read my Memoirs of a Meegan blog then you’ll be lost when I mention the term “booty”. Go back and read it so you can become familiar the term.
Booty eggs for lack of a better word are bottom of the barrel eggs.
They taste and look like crap.
Strange thing is, most of us don’t know we’re eating booty eggs because we’ve been eating them for so long.
Chickens who produce them can be fed a number of things most of which aren’t their native diet.
In some cases, chickens who produce “booty” eggs are fed genetically modified corn along with other subpar ingredients including soy feed.
Antibiotics and hormones are added to them to make them grow faster and fight infection.
They are very low in nutritional value.
You’ll probably see these eggs floating around your local breakfast restaurant.
In order to make them taste better, they may add something like cake batter to them like IHOP does.
Grade: F
Cage Free Eggs – Cage free means exactly what says…chickens aren’t raised in cages.
When chickens are raised in cages, terms like humanely raised are used.
What’s humane about 5k chickens in a crowded pen without ever seeing daylight?
Even the most violent criminals get one hour of rec time in prison.
Chickens value their space and don’t deserve to be crowded in barns for food production.
Overcrowding, breeds disease which again necessitates the need for antibiotics and hormones.
I’ll never forget watching Food Inc. and seeing Carole Morrison pick up dead chickens with her bare hands.
Carole also spoke of the disease infested, feces ridden chicken houses.
How on earth can we get good eggs from sick chickens?
Grade D+
Free Range Eggs– This might be a myth. Free range means the chickens are allowed to roam, but roam where?
Sounds a lot like cage free to me. If a chicken is “truly” free range this will result in a better tasting egg with more nutrition.
The optimal word in the preceding sentence is “truly”.
How do you know the chickens weren’t raised in feedlots and fed subpar food?
You really don’t know and that’s where the confusion begins. Who wants to pay 4.00 for a dozen of eggs that aren’t really free range?
If you can find a truly free range egg, you’ve got a healthier egg if they are allowed to roam on pasture and fed properly.
I’m grading this one on the fact it is a true free range egg…
Grade B-
Organic Eggs- Could the whole organic thing be a scam? Organic doesn’t always make everything good! The issue with organic eggs is they are vegetarian fed. That’s right, vegetarian fed.
People have know idea chickens like most humans are omnivores.
They will eat vegetation but also love eating bugs and worms.
In many cases where the chicken is fed a vegetarian diet this means soy is involved.
Although the chicken will eat soy, it does change the nutritional profile of the egg.
Vegetarian fed hens have also been linked to dairy allergies as soy is one of the most common food allergies.
Grade: C
Pasture Raised Eggs–In a world full of Yugos this is the Ferrari Testarossa of eggs.
The first time I cracked open a pasture raised egg, the yolk was so yellow and the whites so thick, I saw nutrition floating out of the bowl.
The sight of it was nothing compared to the taste.
Chickens raised on pasture are allowed to roam and eat their native diet.
They hunt for bugs and worms and anything else they can find.
When a chicken is allowed to eat their native diet, we benefit because it produces a more nutrient dense egg.
Chickens were raised this way long time ago before chicken mills and mass food production became popular.
Grade: A+
In many respects, most of us look at our food, like we look at eggs.
We think its all the same.
If we don’t think its the same, we rarely put any thought into what makes it different.
To think different, you have to know different.
Unfortunately, many of us don’t think differently because it may lead to us getting confused.
No one want to be confused so we revert back to simplicity.
This isn’t always a bad thing.
Eggs use to be simple until science got involved.
Everything including eggs, is now being mass produced.
Its ironic we now have more eggs than ever ,but less nutritional value.
Its even more ironic something as simple as an egg could become so convoluted.