The Egg Confusion

The other day I was in line for the grocery store check out, when I saw the young couple in line ahead of me.  They had a lot of healthy food, some organic food, and mostly fresh veggies.  The cashier commented on what they had, and they replied that they try to eat as healthy as they can.  It was then that I spied the egg container.  It was a brand of cage-free eggs.  It made me realize, that sometimes we just don't know what the labels mean.  The brand was selling the fact that the eggs were "all natural", and vegetarian fed cage free eggs, like they were more healthy than the cheaper eggs. Were they?  And by the way, have you ever seen an egg that was not "all natural".  What does that mean anyway?

In doing some research, I found that there are several problems with eggs that we should be aware of.  I think the most important thing would be what the chickens are eating.  Whatever they eat will go into their eggs, and then we will eat them.  So what exactly is vegetarian fed, is that special?  Not really, as most chickens are fed commercial feed made from soy and corn.  So even the caged chickens eat the same stuff.  Maybe some of the better brands don't use antibiotics or hormones in their feed, which is better, but they are still eating soy and corn.  What is so bad about soy and corn you may ask.  It is GMO soy and corn, which means that either they have huge amounts of Round-up with glyphosate sprayed on them, or they are made with a BT toxin that kills insects by destroying their intestinal lining from the inside out.  That means that the corn and soy have a lot of pesticides and herbicides in them, and you are eating the eggs from the chickens who eat the poisons. 


So just because a chicken is cage free, doesn't mean the eggs are more healthy.  Don't be duped by the labels. Just because it says they are vegetarian fed doesn't mean anything either, because most chickens are vegetarian fed.  Some may be allowed to eat bugs, which would be better, but that would mostly be farm fresh eggs.

So that brings us to another subject, farm fresh eggs.  I have to admit that they are usually better tasting, and you can tell are more fresh.  Most farm raised chickens get to eat the bugs around the yard, and are only fed grain to add to their diet, but is the grain organic or GMO free?  If not, then they get GMO feed too.  I was very sad to see that the farm I get some things from were using commercial feed. But recently they have found a source of GMO free chicken feed.  If you do get farm raised eggs, ask the owners what they feed their chickens, so you know what is in the eggs.

If you can't get farm fresh, non GMO eggs, the next best thing is organic.  Organic eggs come from chickens who are only fed organic food, and are not getting the typical GMO diet.  They might be caged or uncaged, brown or white, vegetarian fed or not.  What really matters here is that the food they eat is organic.  So if you are truly interested in buying healthy eggs, don't fall for the scams.  There is only one choice and that is organic. 

On another note, remember eggs are not evil and full of bad cholesterol.  We might have to do a whole other lesson on that later, but eggs are a healthy source of protein.  So get some good eggs, and don't be afraid to incorporate them into your diet.  Recently, a friend told me that she couldn't eat eggs for breakfast, they didn't fill her up.  I asked how many she was eating, and she said "Two".  I said " Well then eat three or four, that aught to do the trick."  You can add a lot of things to eggs also, like cheese, veggies, or meat, which makes them even better.