The Truth About Free Range, Organic, Cage Free Eggs Nutrition – Which Ones Should You Buy And Are They Safe Raw?
I love eggs. Scrambled, hard-boiled, over easy, deviled (check out Richard Nikoley’s deviled egg recipe)…it doesn’t matter. I’ll eat eggs pretty much any way you want to give them to me. Amongst the fitness crowd, they’re pretty much a staple because they are such cheap, delicious nutrition.
So today, let’s look at this little package of protein.
Understanding Egg Marketing Labels
“Free Range,” “Cage Free,” “Organic”…what does it all mean? Marketing labels are perhaps the most confusing part of this whole “eating healthy” game. So what do the various terms you see on the packages mean?
- Conventional (i.e., no special label) – Typically less than half a square foot of space per hen, giving not even enough room to spread their wings.
- Cage Free – As it says, the hens are able to move about inside a barn without being confined to cages. A better life, but not optimal as parts of beaks are often burned to prevent pecking at themselves and others (a sign of distress, by the way).
- Free Range – Implies chickens on lush green pastures. Actually is not a regulated term for eggs so this can be used by absolutely anyone. Really all that’s needed is a door to the outside that gives the chickens “access” to an outdoor area, whether they actually use it or not. This is a meaningless term.
- Organic – This means the hens were fed organic feed, whatever that feed consists of. I think it also means no animal by-products in the feed.
- Vegetarian – The hen is fed a vegetarian feed. I only mention this to point out that chickens are omnivores, not vegetarians, and will naturally eat bugs, grubs, etc. This term is used to imply “healthier” in our anti-meat culture.
As you can see, few of the terms on the egg carton actually mean a whole lot. Other than “organic” and “vegetarian,” it’s pretty useless. But there’s one more term that actually means what you want it to mean. “Pastured” means the chickens were raised on pasture, with access to the sun, grass, bugs, and possibly supplemented with grains and other feed.
So Which Eggs Are The Healthiest?
The USDA will tell you that all eggs are created equal, just as all vegetables, whether organic or not, are equal. Somehow the output from a chicken doesn’t depend on the inputs in the USDA’s world, which is frankly a ridiculous assumption. It’s like a chicken is a little computer program that always puts out the perfect solution, regardless of how much garbage you fed into the program. Too bad it’s not reality.
I was passed two articles from Mother Earth News regarding the nutrition of truly pastured eggs versus the eggs the USDA uses for its tests. Care to see what the results were?
- 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 as much vitamin D
But how exactly did they get these results?
These amazing results come from 14 flocks around the country that range freely on pasture or are housed in moveable pens that are rotated frequently to maximize access to fresh pasture and protect the birds from predators. We had six eggs from each of the 14 pastured flocks tested by an accredited laboratory in Portland, Ore.
So we have an egg that is altogether more nutritious when the animal is raised in a more natural environment and allowed to eat its natural diet. Imagine that! Too bad the USDA and the Egg Board are unwilling to admit it.
Mike and I talk a lot about reframing our mindset and I think this is another key time for that. I pointed out before that it’s not that a diet based on real foods prevents disease, rather it doesn’t cause disease like the diet of most people. A pastured egg from a chicken eating something very close to the primal version of a chicken diet is our baseline, not the conventional egg. It’s not that pastured eggs are packed with more vitamins. It’s that conventional eggs have less nutrition. It’s all about context.
If you’d like to read more about these studies, check out these articles:
Meet Real Free-Range Eggs
Eggciting News!
How Dangerous Are Raw Eggs?
The genesis for this article was a question I received about eating raw eggs and if it was dangerous. While I can’t decide for you if the risk is worth the reward, here is some information to help you make your decision on whether to cook your eggs or eat them raw.
Salmonella
According to most media reports, eating your eggs anything short of completely dried out and charred is tantamount to committing suicide. The little bug known as Salmonella might just take your life if you don’t thoroughly cook every bite of egg you take. This over-hyping from the media has ruined everything from Caesar dressing to the Whiskey Sour.
The reality is that there is a 1-in-20,000 to 1-in-30,000 chance that any given conventional egg will be contaminated with Salmonella. You have a 1-in-1,000 chance of dying of accidental drowning and a 1-in-6500 chance of dying from a slip and fall. And since few cases of Salmonella actually involve death, I think this is a pretty unimportant concern. Unfortunately, we don’t have statistics on pastured or organic eggs, but I’m betting it’s lower since healthy chickens and healthy conditions are less likely to harbor the Salmonella bacteria.
Avidin
Raw egg whites contain an enzyme called avidin that acts as an anti-nutrient to bind biotin in the yolk. Also known as vitamin B7, biotin is instrumental in cell growth and the metabolism of fatty acids and amino acids, as well as blood sugar maintenance. Just like with most vitamins, it’s a bad idea to reduce their availability to the body.
If you’re going to eat your eggs raw, I’d advise eating the yolk without the white. The yolk contains all of the nutrition anyway, while the white contains the avidin. In fact, Chris Masterjohn questions whether it’s advisable to consume any egg whites at all. As he points out, some avidin remains even after cooking.
My Take On Raw Eggs
So while I’m not advising you one way or the other, I will say that, while I don’t include raw eggs in my diet, I think the risks are overstated, though I’m not sure that the benefits are all that great either. Oxidation of the fats and cholesterol in the yolk seems to me to be the focus of most raw advocates, so I opt instead for cooking most of my eggs without exposing the yolk to the air. Over-easy and hardboiled are how 90% of my eggs are eaten. While there is heat exposure, there is no light or air exposure to begin the process of oxidation. I do occasionally throw together an omelet though, cooked over low-medium heat in healthy saturated fats that are protective against oxidation.
Finding The Incredible, Edible Egg
So knowing that pastured eggs are markedly more nutritious than conventional eggs, along with being more flavorful and safer, you have another reason to support your local farmers. Pastured eggs are more expensive, but they are also more nutritious. Check out your local farmer’s markets and buying clubs.
Of course, you could eat more conventional eggs to ensure that you get enough vitamins, but then you’re also changing the number of calories and macronutrient composition of your diet. The bottom line is to just focus on eating foods as nature intended them rather than using the sub-par foods that the USDA deems as the baseline. Your health will thank you.
Finally, here are some other egg posts looking at things not discussed in this post:
How many eggs do you eat each week and what’s your favorite way to eat them? Do you eat them raw? Why or why not?
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I love eggs, great article! Problem is finding the good ones, lilke you said. I guess I’ll check the farmer’s markets
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i thought cholesterol and saturated fat were not harmful. if a pastured egg has 1/3 less cholesterol and 1/4 less saturated fat, how is that a good thing?
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Ben, the pastured eggs have more vitamins and more omega-3s, as well. Grain-fed beef has more saturated fat than grass-fed…that single factor alone doesn’t make it better than grass-fed. While saturated fat and cholesterol may not themselves be harmful, that doesn’t mean that there isn’t a normal level of those substances in every food. Gotta look at the whole picture.
Hope that helps
Scott
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Mmmmmmm……..love eggs! Best muscle building food there is!
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scott,
thanks for your response. i should have thought about this before my first comment. i’ve read considerable research showing the single most important part of our diet is the omega-3 ratio. i assume the pastured eggs are worth eating not only for their great taste, but also because they will boost ones omega-3 ratio. grain feed beef and grass fed beef both have saturated fat and cholesterol, but only one contains a beneficial ratio of omega-3-to-6.
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Also pastured eggs (and grassfed beefs) are higher in the CLA, a healthy fatty acid (for those of us that remember the EAS days of them promoting it for increased fat loss). Good reading about it here: http://www.eatwild.com/healthbenefits.htm
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Nice to see an article presenting the REAL facts on eggs. I don’t think I could handle another ” eggs are high in cholesterol-saturated fat, so avoid them” article.
I eat them raw in smoothies, or fried with the yolks still runny. I know the jury is still out on avidin, but I’m banking on the fact that the yolks are so high in biotin, that it’s a non issue.
Thanks
P.S
I’ve been eating more than a dozen raw eggs a week for almost 5 years, and have not gotten Salmonella yet!
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For folks looking for pastured eggs from a small family farm in Illinois, your best bet is to ask around, because chances are reasonably good that you won’t find them at a farmer’s market. Illinois requires people selling eggs at public venues like farmer’s markets to have an egg license, which requires special equipment and an on-site state inspection. I know all this, because I tried selling a few dozen excellent eggs from my in-law’s farm at the local farmer’s market, and was told I could not. Ironically, my m-i-l is of course allowed to GIVE AWAY as many eggs as she wants, so her local food pantry gets a lot of incredibly nutritious and tasty eggs FOR FREE. So obviously egg licensing is not a food safety issue – it’s just a great way to squelch the competition of the industrial egg producers.
http://www.beebecreekfarm.com/free-range-eggs/
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I prepare 2-3 sunny-side-up eggs with bacon almost every morning. I have eaten several raw eggs in the past, but I find the texture of raw egg yolk repulsive; the sensation of swallowing that bulbous goo makes me cringe (if you decide to try it, I find it helpful to cover my tongue with salt before I put the egg in my mouth)!
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Friends of mine here in Massachusetts raise organic hens/eggs. They are delicious and there are so many eggs that they are happy to give them away.
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Thanks for the shout, Scott. As to the deviled eggs, I would say this is an idea way to introduce roe into the diet. I served them to three people who had never done salmon roe and they all loved them.
Raw eggs? Been putting them in my fruit smoothies and my protein shakes for years and years. Never a problem, ever. I usually use two raw eggs per serving, right in the blender. Makes for the greatest creaminess. Add in a tbsp of coconut oil or coconut butter, 1/3 to 1/2 cup heavy cream, 1/3 – 1/2 cup water, ice, & blend. Sometimes I’ll add a dash of vanilla extract too.
Awesome. My favorite time for these is the day after workout day, when I typically feel like a light breakfast in terms of volume (but not in terms of protein or fat).
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I love eggs and try to eat ‘em almost every morning. I don’t eat them raw (why take the risk?) but I’ve always wanted to eat crack open a few eggs into a glass in the morning and chug them down in the morning like Rocky!
Great post!
Rafi Bar-Lev
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I love eggs but I can really only eat six or so a week, usually over easy. Sometimes I have them soft or hard boiled (I have a little electric egg cooker).
I have a co-worker who raises free range chickens. I can get a dozen beautiful brown and green eggs with an orange-yellow yolk for about $2.
If you live in the Fort Wayne, IN area Seven Sons also sells free range eggs about $3 a dozen at their farm in Roanoke and the local co-op in FW.
My favorite breakfast…sauteed chicken livers and eggs over easy with fresh tomatoes.
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Scott,
This is good info to know. I get so confused at the grocery store. There are so many description that sound healthy “organic, free range, etc.”…now I know to look for “pastured” eggs.
Also…because of you and Mike, I completely gave up on Egg Beaters…those pictures of the mice who ate Egg Beaters scarred me for life!
Cheers,
Rusty
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If you have any kind of backyard, why not raise your own chickens? We live in a regular suburban neighborhood, have 8 hens and my sons (7 and 12) accept a donation
for eggs. It would be illegal for them to sell them. They are very easy to raise, don’t smell, and put themselves to bed at night.
I laugh whenever I see “vegetarian”diet because I know that those chickens aren’t getting outside. We have NO spiders (brown recluses and black widows are common here) low to the ground, no bug, and if you feed them some left over meat, yogurt or cheese they go crazy!
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I went to the store and bought 2 dozen eggs after reading this. Awesome.
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You didn’t mention “Certified Humane”, which means a heck of a lot more, I have heard, than weaker claims like “grass-fed” / “free-range” etc.
I just bought eggs today, and chose the ones that were produced in a Certified Humane manner, as that has been suggested to be more strict than other more marketing-spun claims.
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Mike, good call on the CLA.
T Dude, you’re right that the biotin and avidin should somewhat balance out. I found something that said it would take over 20 raw eggs a day to get a biotin deficiency. Not sure how accurate that is though.
Angel, that’s good information. I hate that people are restricted from selling real food in the interest of “protecting us from ourselves”. Luckily, Kentucky, while we have some weird laws, is pretty lenient with eggs and raw milk. Can’t buy raw milk in the store, but cow shares and such are easy to handle.
Chris, sunny-side up is another good way that I use sometimes. You get the cooked texture without overcooking the eggs.
Rhea and Carol, I wonder what my roommates would think if I stocked the backyard with a few hens.
I bet my roommates dog would have a field day!
Richard, that shake sounds great! Do you ever add stuff like cocoa powder or fruit? Seems it would also be tasty if you wanted to kick in some carbs.
Rachel, I love leftover liver (usually beef) and eggs. Leftover tongue goes well with eggs too.
Rusty, definitely check your farmer’s markets where you can talk to the farmers. You’re more likely to find pastured eggs there. And I’m so glad to hear we’ve saved at least one person from eating those atrocious Egg Beaters. More real food being eaten is a good thing.
LeslieW, thanks for the info on Certified Humane. I forgot about that one.
Cheers
Scott
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Scott:
I do indeed add fruit sometimes, usually, blueberries, but also strawberries, and I’ve done blackberries (I like the seeds).
I sometimes get the cocoa whey powder (low/no carb), and in such case, the coconut really goes well with the chocolate.
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This is a great article. I recently switched to organic eggs, but now I will definitely look for pastured. Thanks for information like this. I really am trying to educate myself on healthier eating options. Keep these articles coming.
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My solution was to have a small flock (12 chickens) of my own. Their yolks are bright yellow and the taste is absolutely AMAZING!
I feed them soy-free organic grains, and organic fruit and veggies scraps from my kitchen. They also eat all the green grasses and bugs they want as they spend the daylight hours scratching around my yard.
Their manure is excellent for your garden and they keep the bug populations down.
Plus the money I make from the extra eggs more than pays for their expenses.
Most communities are relaxing their rules about having chickens, so it is definitely something to look into. It’s really been a great experience for me.
Chickens are very low maintenance – and really quite entertaining. They each have distinct little personalities.
It makes me sad to think of the chickens in factory farms that can’t even stretch their wings. The first thing my girls do in the morning is stretch and fly around a bit. It must be completely awful to be confined for your entire life.
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Eggs are the best food source of protein. There’s a great video on making hard boiled eggs without having to deal with the messy eggshell. The video’s by Tim Ferriss, it’s worth to check out on YouTube.
I try and eat eggs but link someone else mentioned above it’s hard to eat a lot in one sitting.
Also, I heard that you don’t get the benefits of the protein when you eat them raw as opposed to cooked.
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