August 31, 2011

Eggs with Benefits

I have always heard that pastured chicken eggs are much more nutritious than those factory farm or so-called "cage free" eggs you can buy at the grocery store....but I just came across this article from Mother Earth News that gives some facts to the case.

Free range, pastured chickens produce eggs that may have:

  • 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



The "may" is in there because this directly relates to what kind of pasture, how long each day, whether or not they eat supplemental chicken feed, its type, etc.

Our personal experience is that our girls egg yolks are much deeper orange than the ones from the store and the whites are much firmer.  You can tell the age of an egg by how runny (or not) the whites are when you break it in a bowl.  Since most store bought eggs typically are months old, they tend to be more runny.

The real benefit are all the things you make with them: custard, quiche, scrambles, cakes and more!!! Yum!

A dozen of our girls eggs!


1 comment:

  1. Our egg shells, both yours and mine, are also much stronger. My friends are always amazed that the eggs are harder to crack. Hooray for chicken keeping.

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