Not All Eggs Are Created Equal

On average I consume over a dozen eggs in one week. Does this surprise you? I have at least two eggs for breakfast each morning, sometimes three. Eggs are a powerhouse of nutrition. 

What’s in an Egg? 
Several years ago, the myth that eggs were bad for your heart was quite common, and unfortunately, many people still believe this today. They are totally missing out on the benefits of this superfood! Of course, as we have been learning over the last several posts on traditional foods, it does matter how the food you eat is raised. I make sure to get my eggs from a quality source. Our eggs come from hens on pasture who are free to walk around, eat grass and plants, bask in the sun, and even chomp on some bugs. These hens produce much healthier eggs than hens kept inside in cramped conditions without the ability to eat grass, plants, and bugs. You can physically see this difference when you compare their yolks.

Left: Eggs from pastured hens from Sand Creek Farm in Texas

Right: Certified organic eggs fed "vegetarian feed" from Costco

The egg from the pastured hen is a bright, deep orange color, whereas the other egg is a light yellow color. Note: these photos have not been doctored. I just cracked the eggs into separate bowls and snapped a photo. I broke the yolk of one, which is why it's a bit bulbous, but it doesn't affect the color! :) There's one thing you should know about determining the nutrition in your eggs - look at the color of the yolk! The darker color is indicative of a higher concentration of carotenes and more fat-soluble vitamins. Obviously the one on the left is more nutritious for you, while the organic, yet still conventional egg is seriously lacking. 

Eggs from pastured hens are jam-packed full of healthy vitamins for you. Jan Allbritton, from the Weston A. Price Foundation, detailed it better than I could in her article, Eat Your Eggs and Have Your Chickens Too. Here's an excerpt (emphases mine):

"Egg yolks are the richest source of two superstar carotenoids—lutein and zeaxanthin. Not only are bright yellow yolks loaded with these fat-soluble antioxidant nutrients, they are more bioavailable than those found in vegetables, corn and most supplements. While these nutrients have a reputation of combating macular degeneration and cataracts and supporting overall healthy vision, they have a long list of other benefits, including protecting the skin from sun damage and even reducing one’s risk of colon and breast cancer.

"Besides providing all eight essential protein building amino acids, a large whole, fresh egg offers about six to seven grams of protein and five grams of fat (with about 1.5 grams of it saturated), which comes in handy to help in the absorption of all the egg’s fat-soluble vitamins. One egg also serves up around 200 milligrams of brain-loving cholesterol and contains the valuable vitamins A, K, E, D, B-complex and minerals iron, phosphorus, potassium and calcium. Choline, another egg-nutrient, is a fatty substance found in every living cell and is a major component of our brain. Additionally, choline helps break up cholesterol deposits by preventing fat and cholesterol from sticking to the arteries. So the bottom line is, don’t be chicken about eating eggs, especially the cholesterol-rich yolks!"

How to Find Good Eggs

With all the different types of labeling found nowadays on egg packaging, it could be intimidating trying to find nutritious eggs for your family. My best advice would be to avoid the grocery store. In my opinion, it's near to impossible to find eggs from pastured hens there. Instead, visit your local farmer's market. Talk to the farmers and ask how they raise their hens. Don't worry, most farmers are happy to share how they raise their animals, and they like to see that you are going above and beyond to find out what goes into the food you're feeding your family.

I'll share with you what I look for when searching out eggs for my family. First, I want eggs from pastured hens, so I'll ask the farmers about that. You want to hear them say that the hens have access to pasture 24/7 and tend to enjoy being outside except at night, that the farmers use a mobile hen house for ease of pasture rotation or rotate the hens to new pasture using a specific schedule so the grass isn't depleted, and that the hens eat grass, plants, bugs, and get plenty of sunshine. Second, most chickens, even if pastured, are given supplemental feed. So, unlike beef, you'll most likely never see hens that are 100% grass fed. I definitely ask the farmers about the additional feed they use. It is extremely important to avoid soy and any GMOs (genetically modified organisms). Unfortunately, this is much more difficult to do, but it is still doable. You might just have to talk to a few more farmers.

Be aware that these superior eggs will be more expensive than eggs bought from the store. Consider this an investment in your family's health. When others have asked how I can spend more on pastured eggs, I haven't found it difficult to respond. Rather, I consider it a waste of our money to continue buying conventional eggs. They may fill our bellies, but they provide little nutrition. Spending a bit more on eggs from pastured hens is like making a little sacrifice for a HUGE gain. Really, when you think about it, for all the nutrition eggs supply, they will provide the best bang for your buck. Plus, as we've changed our family's diet to traditional foods, we've also adjusted our food budget. But, that will be a post for another day.

I do understand, however, that there are times when it's just not possible to purchase eggs from hens on pasture; perhaps they're not available, or you're still working the budget to include them. Until you can, what other eggs could you buy? The chart below will help you choose the best for your family.

It's time to stop believing what you're used to hearing about eggs. Eggs are a wholesome, natural food that were a part of many traditional cultures for thousands of years, and will continue to be just that - a healthy food for you and your family!

How many eggs do you eat each week, and

what’s your favorite way to eat them?

Photo Credit: Smiley Egg 5 by Bizior
This was entered into The Healthy Home Economist's Monday Mania, Food Renegade's Fight Back Friday, and Real Food Forager's Fat Tuesday.

Meet Dr. Weston A. Price

With all this talk about traditional food, I should mention the doctor who has probably been the greatest contributor to getting traditional foods back on the American table. 

Dr. Weston A. Price

Dr. Weston A. Price, a native of Canada, practiced dentistry in Cleveland, Ohio in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.  He also founded the Research Institute of the American Dental Association (now known as the Research Section) and served as chair of the institute for fourteen years. 

Historically an agrarian society, America quickly shifted over to industrialization and food processing while Dr. Price was working with his patients. Around this time, he began seeing more and more patients with tooth decay, deformed palate arches, narrower jaws, and other dental issues. Additionally, he noticed that those plagued with dental problems also tended to be weaker and more susceptible to other diseases.  The connection between a decrease in the health of his patients and the dramatic change in the American diet couldn't be ignored, and Dr. Price became determined to find exactly why chronic disease had come so swiftly upon Western culture. 

Research and Studies

In the early 1930s, Dr. Price left his practice and traveled with his wife to isolated parts of the globe to study indigenous groups of people yet untouched by Western civilization. He wanted to study the healthiest people in the world to determine what kept them free from disease. The groups that Dr. Price included in his research were Australian aborigines, New Zealand Maori, Melanesian and Polynesian South Sea Islanders, isolated Swiss villages, the Maasai and other African tribes, Gaelic groups in the outer Hebrides, the Inuit population, Native Americans, and South American tribes. Dr. Weston A. Price found that those tribes who remained faithful to their native, unprocessed, traditional foods were of better, more excellent health than those of the same ethnic background who had incorporated processed and industrialized foods into their diet.

When Dr. Price returned from traveling across the globe, he collected his findings and edited them into a book titled, Nutrition and Physical Degeneration. Included in the book are some of the 18,000 photos he took along the way! If you read the book you'll find that many of the populations did not eat similar things. Some groups tended to eat lots of plants, other groups mainly ate meat and fat; some consumed milk regularly, and others never drank it. Although there appear to be great differences at first glance, deeper investigation shows there to be incredible similarities.

Findings and Conclusions

In all the populations he studied, Dr. Price found that those people who stuck to a natural, unprocessed, traditional diet tended to be physically hardy, strong, and .

resilient.  These native peoples were virtually free from chronic diseases that were beginning to plague the American people. This included obesity, heart disease, fertility problems, cognitive disabilities, and other diseases. 

Dr. Price also noticed similar food practices amongst the people. Each native group used all parts of the animal: prizing the organ meats, saving the bones for broth, and certainly not throwing away the fat. Those that included dairy in their diet drank it raw or cultured. Grains, if used, were soaked and fermented before being consumed.  Many vegetables, fruits, and other foods were fermented before being eaten, which turned the foods into natural probiotics. Most cultures made drastic effort to obtain seafood, especially fish roe (eggs). Lastly, natural sugars like honey, and those found in fruit were eaten sparingly and in season. Of course, food items like white sugar and high fructose corn syrup were nonexistent. 

These traditional diets are much more nutrient dense than the foods we eat today. Dr. Price found that these native peoples consumed many times more vitamins and minerals than was typical in the standard American diet. He noticed in particular, within all populations he studied, that they consumed, on average, TEN times more fat soluble vitamins than Americans who ate a modern, refined diet. Of course, they were getting these vitamins from butter, fish eggs, organ meats, shellfish, eggs, and animal fats - foods which are largely shunned by the American people. In fact, fat consumption comprised 40% to 80% of their daily caloric intake. Much of this fat was saturated, coming from the animals they raised.

Besides noticing their wholesome diets and excellent physical health, Dr. Price also examined their teeth and found less than 1% of tooth decay in all the people he visited. He discovered wide palates and straight, white teeth - and this was without any local orthodontist helping out! What was most astonishing was that these people didn't practice any sort of dental hygiene. 

These people lived primarily on moose and caribou meat.

Dr. Price concluded that industrialized foods which had quickly made their way into the Western diet were the exact foods causing increases in poor dental health and degenerative disease. What foods would this include? Unfortunately, they are those we often find at our local grocery store: sugar, white flour, jelly, cookies, pasteurized milk, canned vegetables, refined grains, margarine, and vegetable oils.

The work of Dr. Weston A. Price has contributed greatly to a better understanding of health today. Sally Fallon, author of Nourishing Traditions (mentioned in the previous post on traditional foods) founded the Weston A. Price Foundation, a nonprofit nutritional advocacy group, to honor his work and spread the truth about nutrition and disease. 

The focus at Nourish to Flourish is on traditional foods. These nutrient-dense, natural, unprocessed and unrefined diets were the key to health of these native peoples and our ancestors, and remain the key to our health today.

You can also read Dr. Price’s book online, or download it as a PDF for free on your computer. 

Photo Credits:Wikipedia and  Project Gutenberg of Australia