Surprising Facts About Eggs

About Farm Fresh Eggs

Nutritional Powerhouse

There are lots of great reasons to include eggs in your healthy lifestyle.  Eggs are a very nutrient dense food, meaning you get lots of nutrients for low calories.  According to The American Egg
Board and Best Health Magazine, your 70 calorie egg contains the following:

• Vitamin B2
• Vitamin B12
• Vitamin A
• Vitamin D
• Vitamin E
• Iron, zinc, phosphorus and other minerals

But probably the biggest reason eggs are good for you is the protein.  One large egg contains about 12% of your daily protein requirement.  Eggs are a high quality protein, meaning they contain all the essential amino acids (the ones our bodies can’t produce itself).  Our bodies need protein to build and repair muscles and tissues.  So getting enough is important for anyone, but especially for

• Athletes and people who work out
• Growing children
• Pregnant women
• Older adults (to slow age related muscle loss)

Buying, cooking and eating eggs

So now that you’ve heard the health benefits of eggs you might be wondering how to eat more of them.  Maybe grocery shopping and cooking isn’t really your thing. No worries!  Here are a few useful pointers.

• The government grade on the carton is determined by the size of the air cell inside the egg, the quality and freshness.  Grade AA eggs were packed less than 10 days ago, grade A less than 30.
• Your egg carton also includes the size and maybe how the chickens were raised (cage-free, free-range or pasture raised), if they are hormone or antibiotic free, certified organic, or given vegetarian feed.  This page from Michigan State University goes into more details about what exactly those terms mean.
• There is no difference between white and brown eggs.  The breed of the hen determines the shell color.
• How fresh are the eggs in your fridge?  Try this test from the Old Farmer’s Almanac.  Dissolve two tablespoons of salt in two cups of water.  Gently put the egg in.  If it sinks and tips to one side, it’s fresh.  If it is suspended in the middle, it’s moderately fresh.  Floating up to the top means it’s stale.
• If you need a little help cooking eggs, try this easy to understand tutorial at The Art of Manliness.  It covers scrambled, fried, poached and hardboiled along with sunny side up and over easy.

Farm Fresh Eggs vs. Store Bought

Science and egg producers have been conducting taste tests for a long time.  Most of the time people can’t tell a difference in taste.  Color differences inside the egg itself are due to the diet of the hens not freshness.  While a hen’s diet may affect taste slightly, freshness affects it more.  In other words, an egg from the farm and an egg from the store will taste the same if they are both fresh.

That being said, almost anyone who’s actually tasted fresh food prefers it.  And farm fresh eggs are likely fresher than the eggs in your grocery store.  If farm fresh eggs are not readily available purchasing grade AA eggs could be a compromise.

If you are concerned about the chickens being treated humanely buying straight from the farmer can obviously offer insight.  Buying eggs from a local farmer also supports the local economy.  But so does buying them from a local store.

Are you hungry yet?  There are so many great things about eggs you’ll want to enjoy them over and over!