Healthier Ways to Buy and Eat Eggs

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Updates for healthier ways to buy and eat eggs. Some may surprise you.

How to Buy Healthy Eggs

In the grocers, look for eggs labeled PASTURE-RAISED, such as Vital Farms. Pastured hens live outdoors in movable coops.

In a Farmer’s Market, ask the seller “what do you feed these chickens?”

Eggs that are colored, speckled or slightly dirty don’t mean the birds were pastured. They may have been raised in a fenced dirt area with no access to bugs or forage. Eating GMO corn and soy – not a natural diet for birds.

Pastured chickens’ natural diet is bugs, green plants and seeds. When insects and seeds decline in the winter, they need a grain mix in addition to most any food products from the farm.

Chickens are NOT vegetarians. 

Big Golden Yolks

Good quality eggs have amazing yolks. High, bright orange and very tasty. These yolks are one of the healthiest foods known, containing nutrients hard to find in other eggs or in food in general.

Egg yolks are richer in Choline than any other food. You need Choline to make important brain neurotransmitters.

Healthier Ways to Buy and Eat Eggs

If you have fresh, pastured eggs from happy birds, cook those eggs as little as possible.

Fresh raw high-quality eggs are perfect.

Next best are soft-boiled so the YOLK is still runny and the WHITE is cooked a bit. This is how I eat eggs, using an electric egg cooker which works perfectly every time. That creamy yolk and soft-cooked white with a little of our Pink salt is super tasty!

If you poach or saute your eggs, undercook the yolks if fresh and pasture-raised.

Less Healthy Ways to Cook Eggs

Hard-cooked yolks and whites still yield terrific protein and vitamins, but the fats tend to be damaged by the heat.

I don’t cook with fat very often for this reason. I ADD fat to my cooked food before eating it.

Eggs and the Gallbladder

I have taught Clients for decades that those with known gallbladder or biliary issues should avoid eggs for a few months, then give them a try to see if they have any pain or reaction. Refer to this popular article on eggs and the gallbladder for more.

I had chronic pain in my right shoulder blade for years that went away when I figured out it was related to the gallbladder and eggs. My research showed the culprit in non-medical gall bladder issues can often be inflammation from over-eating eggs.

Free-Range, Organic, Cage-Free: What’s the Difference?

This article titled “Truth in Labeling: Cage Free, Organic, or Free Range” will clarify. Companies are sneaky about labeling food. They don’t want you to know what you’re buying. They want you to avoid the Farmer’s Market or buying specialty eggs. Yes pastured cost more, but eggs are a nearly perfect food. Add vegetables and a little starch and you’ve got a great meal (along with some pastured sausage).

Baby’s First Food?

Understanding healthier ways to buy and eat eggs will provide you with a great food for babies too. This Podcast with Sandrine Hahn from Nourishing Our Children and the Weston Price Foundation mentions raw egg yolk as one of baby’s first foods.