Table of Contents[Hide][Show]
Food manufacturers have attempted to demonize eggs for decades. It is infinitely more profitable to convince the public to eat Egg Beaters and processed vegetable oils than to encourage them to consume the non-patentable perfection that is the egg.
Even folks who see through the marketing hype against eggs that is cleverly disguised as “science” frequently get waylaid by the free range and organic eggs labeling on egg cartons.
The truth is that buying organic, free range eggs from the supermarket or healthfood store is no guarantee that the birds lived a healthy life. What’s more, the eggs may not even be that nutrient dense. You’re safer buying duck eggs or goose eggs as these types of birds are more resistant to industrialized living. Even when domesticated, they eat more closely to their native diet than chickens.
Let’s take a look at why organic chicken eggs are a scam.
Organic Eggs Reality Check #1
Did you know that there are no requirements for the quality or amount of time spent outside for organic eggs or even free range eggs? This means that organic eggs could actually be from hens who get basically no bugs in their diet from pecking in the ground. If the hens don’t get to peck around in the ground for grubs and insects, the eggs they produce will have drastically reduced nutritional value – organic or not.
Organic Eggs Reality Check #2
Did you know that the hens from a free range or organic eggs farm can still have their beaks cut and be subjected to forced molting which involves starving them for 7-14 days which can in some cases kill them?
Organic Eggs Reality Check #3
Organic eggs marked as “cage free” does not mean that the hens have access to the outdoors or even daylight! The hens could actually be running around inside with artificial lighting on a concrete floor and the eggs still qualify as cage free!
The only way to get truly healthy eggs where you can be sure the hens are not abused is to buy local from a farmer you trust, not organic eggs from the store!
There is no way around this folks that I have found. You must start connecting with the people in your community if you really want to source some decent eggs!
Folks in my buying club regularly tell me how shocked they are when they run out of the eggs sourced locally and buy a carton of organic eggs from the store how puny, pathetic and bland tasting they are. They are also incredibly expensive.
Not only will you more than likely save yourself some money buying eggs locally, you will also be helping a local business remain viable and improving the nutrient density of your diet all at the same time!
Organic eggs most definitely does not always mean better!
Need more egg recipes once you’ve found a quality local source? Try these breakfast egg ideas, easy lunch egg recipes, and dinner egg recipes for inspiration!
Below is a fantastic infographic on the reality behind the egg industry created by Kristin Lindquist. What factoids did you find most alarming?
More Information
Best Egg Substitute (plus Video)
Organic Store Eggs Just Don’t Stack Up
What Oxidizes the Cholesterol in Eggs?
Think You Have Fresh Eggs? Here’s How to Tell
sharing this one 🙂 so true!
Those are not organic..now that I have my own chickens I can tell the difference.
awesome article! except the part about pastured eggs from farmers being cheaper. I won’t sell my eggs because people want to pay me $3/dozen and that doesn’t even cover the cost of the organic grain I feed them. Raising chickens is expensive! If I did a more intensive – raise them, keep them penned so the eagles could not eat them and I could find all the eggs they lay, bought new chicks every year and butchered last year’s girls… It would still cost me more than $3/dozen… But I would be more profitable than what I do now (let them free range and get old)
Great article….I’m going to get my eggs at the local farmer now!!
Reality check #4. Not everyone can afford to buy pastured bug eating organic eggs. It’s just a fact of life. We can only do the best we can within our fixed (retirement) income. I certainly would if I could. Thanks for bringing the facts out to those who can.
The cheapest eggs at the store may seem more affordable in the short term, but in terms of the nutritional value for your dollar, they’re more expensive, as you’d have to eat more of them to get the same amount of nutrients (aside from the nutrients that may be missing completely). Plus low nutrient food also tends to lead to higher health care costs in the long run.
oh what nutrients? The fat content is the same. The protein content is the same. Hell, even the calories are the same. There is slightly more cholesterol in the normal egg.s there is a little more vitamin a in eggs from pastured chickens. Its not even missing entirely. Americans get plenty of vitamin a.
I’m interested in reading the study you cite. Can you please provide your souce? Thanks!
I’m not sure what she’s quoting. I tried to do some digging and I came up with the link below. Everything else is from MotherEarthNews, which has their own agenda. I prefer peer-reviewed articles because it allows other scientists to demand proper controls and sets a higher standard of research.
This is from Ken Anderson from Penn state. It does reference the MotherEarthNews research and expands on it. It has all the proper controls- the birds were the same breed and the pasture content was monitored closely. Both the caged and the pastured were fed the same feed. The hens were the same and only differed in pastured versus conventionally caged.
The only difference he found was that the fat content was higher in the ranged hens. This includes omega-3
I buy organic eggs for the same reason that Crystal mentioned. They are not fed GMO grains.
yes. it is very important that the chickens, with no known wild origin (scientist theorize that they might have been a mix of three species of gallus; however a few of their genes are unique to their species, which is gallus domesticus-so they don’t know where they came from), who have been bred through centuries by humans to be mindless, flightless, delicious animals only fit for cheap and ready consumption or eggs that are cheap and ready to eat only be fed organic, nonGMO grains that have also been bred for so many generations that they no longer genetically resemble wild grains. Very important. Makes perfect sense.
‘Scientists’ make a LOT of assumptions, including the one that the hypothesis (yes, not even a theory) of evolution is true. Because that assumption is what your comment is based on. But what if God actually CREATED certain animals for people’s use? What if they were created to be domestic animals, for people to get wool, milk, butter, eggs, meat etc. from?
I expect that chickens were created from the beginning to be living with people, just like cows and sheep. And from the beginning people have been eating chicken eggs.
That’s completely untrue. God didn’t create chickens-humans did. I’m not even claiming natural selection. I’m saying that farmers in the olden days took birds that tasted okay and domesticated them. They then selectively bred the biggest birds and the tastiest birds with each other. Farmers still do that today with cows and pigs. The chicken wasn’t a gift. Maybe the original ancestor (which is really a combination of three species). The same is true of corn, dogs, peanuts, bananas. Humans have been artificially selecting the qualities that we want.
I don’t know about the suggestion that I get off my duff. I think I’m a pretty busy woman trying very hard to keep it all together for my family and the pressure to make one more stop, one more connection and one more responsibility to my plate is just not happening right now. Although I know all this information, I just do not always have all the time, patience, energy and money to do everything perfectly for my family.
Nor should you! You want to know what is a million times worse for your health than eating eggs that aren’t deemed healthy by Princess Sara? STRESS. Stress is terrible for you. It raises your adrenaline, messes up your sleep, changes your eating pattern. Cortisol, another hormone, is also not good for you. People need to stop worrying about eating the perfect foods. People have studied the eggs from pastured chicken and you know what the nutritional difference was? There is more vitamin A in the eggs from pastured chickens. 5% more. Not even a lot. That’s it. You know what would help you significantly more than making that additional stop, talking to an additional person and paying additional money ??? Ten minutes of peace and quiet. Meditate. Relax. Breathe. Its a million times better for your health than stressing about a 5% increase in vitamin a
Hey! “Princess Sarah” is just doing a service- providing information which many of us appreciate! I’m sure she wasn’t looking at you specifically when she said “get off your duff..”. All any of us can do is our best, and I don’t see any reason to resent someone encouraging us to strive for better!
I agree that it’s hard work – and time consuming – to get good food. We all do the best we can and we all have to make compromises.
But I’d like to see the source of the study that shows only a 5% increase of vitamin A in pastured eggs? The studies I’ve read have had much more noticable nutritional differences, including vitamin D.
http://www.motherearthnews.com/Real-Food/2007-10-01/Tests-Reveal-Healthier-Eggs.aspx
I agree.
I think it’s common sense to rank the possibilities like this:
Best: Locally sourced
Good: Organic
Acceptable: Any
Consider that many people are not even eating eggs at all, so do what you can. Strive to be better but don’t get blindsided by perfectionism.
Maybe you should prioritize if you’re too busy to search out the best food for your family, instead of taking the time to read blogs and openly admit that you don’t have time or patience to deal with your convictions or judgement. It’s not hard. It just takes patience. And prioritizing. Family comes first, health comes second. Doing everything perfectly is impossible, but the effort is is something one can put forth everyday.
depressing. considering I buy mainly for ethical causes as opposed to nutrition it sucks that my extra $$ has just been padding someone’s wallet with no real change
I think that it needs to be pointed out that there are a lot of people, myself included, that do NOT live in an area where we can get local eggs. Not an option. Also, I’m an insurance agent here in FL and most homeowners insurance carriers in this state won’t allow their clients to have farm animals, including chickens. I have to do the best I can do for my family, given the circumstances. So all of you calling grocery eggs “gross”…well…at least I’m trying. At least we aren’t eating fast food, etc. Big Food is huge and extremely hard to separate from entirely.
Scarlet, there are buying clubs that deliver raw milk and pastured eggs to FL. Sarah lives in FL and manages…check with your local WAPF chapter leader, I bet you’d be surprised what you can get your hands on….
I am so lucky my neighbor gives me fresh eggs every week. I even had a green-shelled egg once from him!! And I am lucky I have a dairy not too far from me with JERSEY cows, where I can have raw milk for $2/gallon and they are grassfed, only fed antibiotics if they are sick, which is rarely. I am grateful for these blessings every day!