These days, everyone’s confused about what healthy eggs are. A case in point:
“We’ve agreed to disagree about the kinds of eggs we buy. Whenever I go shopping, I buy the free-range kind. Whenever my husband goes, he buys the cheapest eggs he can find. I insist on buying the free-range eggs, because I know you say they’re healthier.”
“Ah, but really they’re not. At least not when it comes to supermarket eggs.” I say.
“Oh.”
Misleading Labels
You see, according to the law, “free-range” doesn’t really mean much of anything. The thing that makes eggs healthy and nutrient-dense is when hens have access to the outdoors, to sunlight, to bugs. If a label says “free-range,” it guarantees none of those things.
In fact “free-range” can simply mean that the hens have “access” to the outside for as little as five minutes a day! They may not even choose to go outside, and when they do, they may simply be walking out into a concrete slab devoid of any bugs, larvae, or grass.
A similar thing can be said for the “cage-free” label. All that means is that rather than being crammed into cages stacked on top of each other, hens are cage-free. They can still be confined indoors for their entire lives, never seeing a day of sunshine.
Even “organic” eggs only guarantee that the chicken was fed organic feed and isn’t receiving antibiotics. They could still have limited or no access to the outside, and their diet is surely unnatural.
What To Buy
So, faced with these meaningless labels, how can you choose the most nourishing, healthy eggs for your family?
Prioritize the purchase of eggs this way:
BEST CHOICE: Pastured eggs from a local farmer (aka Real Eggs). Chickens live their entire lives outdoors, in the pasture, picking through cow dung, eating bugs and grass, basking in the sun. Their feed may or may not be supplemented with anything other than what God and Nature provide in the field. If it is supplemented, a non-soy feed is best. Pick these up at your local farmer’s markets, or use Craigslist or another local ad service to find someone raising hens who would like to part with excess eggs.
Remember, when compared to the USDA’s nutrient data for conventional eggs coming from chickens confined in factory farms, the eggs of pastured hens usually contain:
- 1⁄3 less cholesterol
- 1⁄4 less saturated fat
- 2⁄3 more vitamin A
- 2 times more omega-3 fatty acids
- 3 times more vitamin E
- 7 times more beta carotene
- 4 to 6 times more vitamin D
SECOND: At the supermarket, choose the eggs with the most Omega-3s and DHAs available. Those are the nutrients most commonly lacking in the eggs from “battery hens,” and some companies have specially formulated their chicken feed in an attempt to make up for the hen’s abnormal and unnatural living conditions.
THIRD: Organic eggs. Although they may not be nutritionally superior to your average “battery hen” eggs, you at least know these eggs came from hens raised without the use of antibiotics and that the hens were fed organic feed. So you at least won’t have any environmental guilt buying them.
What To Look For
Real eggs are amazing to behold. The average egg is made up of three parts you need to pay attention to:
- the yolk
- the thick egg white
- the thin, runny egg white
You can tell how nutrient-dense and healthy an egg is by appearance alone. You can tell if a farmer’s telling you the truth or scamming you. You can tell if the chicken who produced the eggs was happy or sad.
I’m not kidding.
When compared to conventional, battery hen eggs, the eggs from pastured chickens have these differences in appearance:
Only one of these eggs came from a pastured hen. Care to guess?
THE YOLK is bigger, taking up a larger portion of the egg. It is also a darker, more orange color when compared to the pale yellow yolks of battery hens. (Note: The color may vary based on the season and how many bugs or green grasses the hen eats, but it will always be noticeably different than the pale yellow of supermarket eggs.)
THE THICK EGG WHITE is bigger and noticeably thicker.
THE THIN, RUNNY EGG WHITE is smaller.
(pictures by above: woodleywonderworks below: jocelynmccauliflower)
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We recently watched a TV program here in Australia, it’s a “all about food” program. Reading this I guess the “no added health benefits” of free-range vrs cage eggs conclusion that they came to could be because of the lack of truth in labelling.
However, my Dad used to be a “what’s cheapest” eggs guy, and then we watched a different TV program. It’s about a British Chef, who takes a group of people who love eating “instant” supermarket chicken. He shows them how he raises the chickens, and he shows them Real food alternatives to their instant ones, along with a taste test. Then they visit a factory farm.
In summary, the ethical reasons for buying free-range eggs mean that even if there is no health difference.
wow- I had no idea there was such a difference, actually I didn’t know there were TWO different kinds of egg whites.
I am so conditioned to like the yellow egg yolks that my first reaction to the orange one was “EW”. lol. This was extremely helpful and a nice reminder.
What I find interesting is your second and third choice- personally I would choose organic, as I’m not interested in additives to my eggs, and the environmental impact is more meaning for me- however i see that your point is nutrition. So really, after pastured I would think it’s about personal choice (which isn’t much).
This makes me want to get my butt over to the market this morning!!
EcoYogini
the best option is having your own hen though. unfortunately my most recent chicken turned out to be a rooster and then got attached by a raccoon last weekend :/
Carrie
we started getting local eggs from a farm here, last year and i couldn’t believe 1. those yolks, amazing and beautiful and 2. how much better they tasted.
we are very lucky that way, because as you said, from packaging, you never know what you are going to get.
our first farm fresh eggs, came from my aunt pat from her hens and my daughter went out and collected them and we ate them 20 minutes later. it was amazing.
treemama
It’s too bad that food growers are picking up on wording such as “free-range” and “organic” to mislead consumers. This is no different with many other food products. I see a lot of people buying eggs like this in stores, but I’m happy to report that at our local co-op and market the eggs which disappear the fastest are those from the local egg growers who allow their chickens to roam and eat and forage naturally, and are untreated with antibiotics or medications. Great article!
Raine Saunders
Alison — I would agree, but my point is simply that even with the “free-range” label you’re not getting enough ethical improvement to justify the additional cost. The cost difference is huge. You could pay $.69/dozen for a battery hen caged egg, or you could pay $3/dozen for so-called “free-range” eggs that offer no nutritional advantage. If the hens aren’t really even free- range and still live in mostly inhumane circumstances indoors, then what exactly are you paying for? A slightly better living situation that’s still quite bad? Some may decide that’s worth the cost, but many would not.
Eco Yogini — Ha ha. I know that feeling! To be honest, I rarely get an egg THAT orange. When I do, I know the chicken who ate it was aggressively going after bugs, as that’s what increases the beta carotene content enough to make it bright orange.
Carrie — I agree! Unfortunately, our HOA rules make owning chickens illegal for me. I have thought about getting DUCKS though. I hear Khaki Campbells lay an average of one egg a day for almost the entire year.
Treemama — Yes, I’ve found that if someone is a real egg lover, they invariably LOVE farm eggs so much more. If someone simply likes eggs as ingredients in things, they may appreciate the better quality eggs, but it doesn’t send them into rapturous fits of delight.
Raine — Thank you. I decided to launch a new What To Buy series of posts because I get asked these questions all the time. Like I did today, I’ll be answering strictly from a nutritional point of view, although ethics and sustainability will come into play, too.
Pastured eggs really do taste different. I laughed when I heard people say that before I tried one. I mean, an egg tastes like…an egg, right? But grocery store eggs have hardly any flavor any more (like most grocery store food, I’m sorry to say) and pastured eggs taste, well, eggy!
Another ploy of grocery store eggs is nutritionism: adding a “higher in Omega 3!” label to factory farmed eggs means that the chickens are fed rancid oils to boost the values in their eggs. Those rancid oils are not good for the chickens, and therefore, I must assume, not good for us, either. The eggs with the highest Omega 3 content are from pastured chickens, by far.
Local Nourishment
Our six hens are finally laying! My kids think it is so neat to have hens pecking all over our property. We of course love the fresh, healthier eggs, too. There truly is no comparison.
What about Fertilized eggs? In one of Sally Fallon’s books she says that one of the grocery store eggs she recommends (if you can’t get pastured) are Trader Joe’s fertile eggs. What is the benefit to being fertile?
Thanks!
It is actually the grass the hens eat that gives the yolks that orange color, an indication the Vitamin A content is high, just like cows eating grass produce yellow butter. Chickens eat a surprising amount of grass, clover, and “weeds”. You should see what they’ve done to my lawn!! Bugs are good too and contribute to the nutritional content of the eggs.
Another labeling misnomer is “vegetarian fed”. Chickens are not vegetarians. When you purchase eggs labeled as such, they are fed genetically modified amino acids to make up for the lack of animal protein in their diets. If you raise your chickens in an immovable pen and feed Purina’s Layena (one of the “vegetarian” feeds available to home flock owners), for example, you aren’t producing eggs much better than the cheap store eggs.
Fertile eggs are not any higher in nutrition than non-fertile eggs. It just means there’s a rooster around. Of course, you would never have fertile eggs in a battery hen house or even one of the commercial “free range” set ups. So traditionally, “fertile” indicated the chickens came from small farm or home flocks. It really is a meaningless word in terms of nutrition.
Thanks for the post and the lovely pictures!
Wow.. This is really amazing!! I never knew that there could be so many differences in the eggs!! I always preferred the cheapest ones I could buy.. Now I will have think twice before I buy!!
Simply Ridiculous
Sorry you can NOT post EGGS FOR SALE on Craigs list, they will NOT let you
Atlanta — Ah, but you can post EGGS WANTED and let people who have extra eggs contact you. (I’ve done that multiple times in the past.) Plus, as a seller, you can often find other ways to word it. I regularly see people with eggs for sale on Craigslist, and that is in fact how I found the rancher from whom I purchase my eggs.
Timely post for me. Just found local eggs on Friday and I’ve been talking about them non-stop. They are soooo good. My son is asking for them for bfast and dinner and is amazed at the different colors and sizes. He wants to personally pick his eggs out before I cook them.
We’re hooked now and will never go back to store bought if we can help it! Thanks for the info!
~Lisa
lunzy
I live in a fairly rural area. i buy my beef straight from the farmer, share a whole beef with a neighbor. I also buy eggs from a local farmer. They are $2.50 per dozen but they are totally worth it
Amanda
Great post! I was wondering about all of this and you really cleared it up. There is a farmer selling eggs at my local farmers market so I’ll go have a chat with him about it.
AJ
That’s such great info. We used to get pastured eggs all the time back in India-that was before the whole thing got commercialized and the big industrial companies got interested in the business.Now,the local farms have been bought by them and the consumers get commercial eggs. I used to always wonder why my brother here in the U.S used to complain that chicken here “doesn’t taste like chicken at all”. That’s slowly becoming the case back in India too!!
The orange colour of the yolk depends on the carotene content in the feed,and I’ve not seen any yolks of that colour in a very longtime!!
Sweta
I am printing out this information for my family members. Thanks everyone for your comments. Very helpful…
Thanks for the Craigslist tip! I just looked and found three local sellers – I’d already reached the point of not wanting to buy any more supermarket eggs. Some day I’m going to raise my own hens!
Very informative, thank you, especially about the nutrients. I agree free-range is no guarantee the bird gets out to feel sun on her wings or grub for worms.
Organic standards in the UK vary, with the Soil Association – the biggest organic certifier – coming out top for bird welfare because of its flock sizes. Size matters. They are small enough for the birds to get access to the pop-holes, spending more time outdoors on fresh pasture.
Here are links to two English organic farms known for their high standards, one in berkshire, the other in Devon: http://www.sheepdrove.com/112.htm
http://www.rafael-eu.com/Providence-Farm-Holsworthy-Devon.html
I buy Soil Association eggs or ones from small family farms where the birds lead natural lives. Certification is useful but not so necessary if you know where your eggs were laid. Know your farmer – know your food!
Elisabeth
I was so happy with the color of the yolk this batch of “country eggs” were! That orange in your picture, that’s what they look like. My sons were amazed and I told them it was because the hens were happy at their place and eating bugs.
Once we even got a double yolker. That was pretty fun.
Motherhen68
Motherhen68 — That’s great! The eggs I buy come from chickens that aren’t out in pasture, but in a sort of extended yard. So, their feed is supplemented. In a given dozen anywhere from 1 to 4 eggs will be more orange than the others. I figured those come from the aggressive hens who out-peck the others for grass and bugs. I’d LOVE to get a dozen bright orange eggs every time. So tasty!!
I usually eat 2-3 eggs daily, and so does my husband. With that rate of consumption we’ve become very particular about eggs. Supermarket eggs are just boring, once you’ve become accustomed to “backyard” eggs that are truly free to eat as natured intended – outdoors where they can choose among plants, bugs, seeds, and grain supplements (if needed). I only resort to supermarket eggs in desperation, and even then, I go for organic so-called free-range with flax seed added to the chicken feed.
Great post!!
There are several online (US) sources for good “real eggs”
and surprisingly affordable….. you do have to buy 5 or 6 dozen at a time.
Marc
Marc Feel Good Eating
Awesome article. thank you. I linked you on my blog!
Rachel´s last blog post …Ft Worth Eggs
My problem with food is that I am trying to avoid harmful food colourings. I recently heard that some poultry feed contains substances that can be harmful, to make the yolk look yellow. The worst seems to be canthaxanthin, which can cause deposits on the retina. So how do I know if hens eggs are yellow because they have been fed grass, or because of this? Are duck eggs any safer? Comments welcome, I live in South Yorkshire, so some farms and markets around.