Eggs: What To Look For

When standing in front of the egg aisle in your local health food store, co-op, or sometimes even farmers market, you are met with an onslaught of buzz words. Phrases such as pasture raised, organic, cage-free, vegetarian-fed, natural, and more jump out at you. The second thing to jump out is the price difference. You ask yourself, is it really worth spending $8 on a dozen pasture raised eggs versus $4 on organic? Well, lets take a quick look at what these things actually mean, and then you can decide for yourself.



White vs. Brown Eggs: This is an easy one, because there is no difference in nutrient value, it simply depends on the kind of chickens that lay the eggs.

Cage-Free: Cage free means that the eggs come from chickens that are not caged in houses found in commercial chicken farms where the animals generally do not even have room to turn around. However, cage free generally doesn't mean all that much, as the chickens are typically still confined to some sort of cage without access to the outdoors, and fed sub-par diets.

Free-Range: This usually means that the chickens have access to some sort of outdoor space, although it does not specify for how long and still has no relation to what the animals are fed.

Pasture-Raised: Here, the chickens are reared in a way that is basically how chickens are supposed to live in their natural environment, in a pasture with access to shelter. They engage in normal chicken behaviors such as eating foods like worms, insects, fruits, and plants instead of a diet that is largely grain-based (not natural for chickens).

Vegetarian-Fed: This is a tricky one, because we would think this means a plant based diet. But no, this almost always means that chickens are fed a grain-based diet, and also typically means they animals are kept indoors or in cases to keep them from feeding on insects and worms.

Organic Grain-Fed: This simply means that the grains chickens are feeding on have not been sprayed with pesticides or come from GMO (genetically modified) seeds.


SO...WHAT TO CHOOSE???

Still confused after all these definitions? Lets think best, better, worst. Best, I would absolutely say pasture raised. You are getting a much bigger bang for your buck nutritionally speaking, are supporting happy and healthy chickens, making sure you are free from ingesting pesticides and herbicides, and are doing the land a favor in the process. Better, free-range organic. Again, avoiding nasty chemicals and hopefully the chickens are getting a bit of time to forage outdoors. Worst, commercially raised eggs. As mentioned above, here the chickens are kept in tight cages, are under a great deal of stress, produce much lower quality eggs, and they are fed grains that may be laden with pesticides and potentially GMO.

Hope this helps! Try your local farmers market whenever possible, and I highly recommend visiting the great website Eat Wild to search for not only high quality eggs, but meats and other animal products, as well.