As thoroughly explained in my posts about cholesterol and arteriosclerosis, dietary cholesterol is not responsible for heart disease at all. In fact it is a necessary element of every healthy cell and by depriving our bodies of this molecule can cause serious problems. This makes eggs a really misunderstood food indeed… the truth is that they are perfectly balanced with high quality bioavailable protein that is actually used as a reference point to compare with all other types of dietary protein. Massive research studies, following people for more than 10 years of their lives prove now that there is no evidence associating egg consumption and risk of heart disease or stroke in neither men nor women. Also independent studies have demonstrated that people eating 4 or more eggs per week had lower cholesterol than people who ate 1 or less. Although these findings may sound like against common reason, they only prove the insanity of the cholesterol theory and the serious nutritional errors we have all been lead to. Except for the protein, eggs can give you generous amounts of the following nutrients: vitamin A, B12, B9, B6,B2 and D, as well as iron, calcium, omega 3, phosphorous, potassium and more.
The thing with all natural products is that they deeply reflect the conditions that the specific animal or plant was raised at. Literally the diet and way of life of an animal or the soil / fertilizers used for a plantation will determine the nutritional value of the final produce. Of course chicken are not an exception here so the different types of eggs you can buy, can literally be entirely different products. The categories (and what they mean) you will customarily find in the super market are more or less as follows:
- Conventional: Factory – farmed chickens living in arrays of cages. Each hen has about 67 square inches of space to stand, which is approximately ¾ of single sheet of A4 paper.
- Cage free: Here the chickens live in enclosures, they have more room to stand up, turn, stretch and walk around.
- Pastured: The chickens in this case are raised in small farms, so they have all the space they want to run and feed with natural grass.
The more confined an animal is the more of the hormone cortisol is released in their blood, that is the stress hormone. Caged chickens live under significant stress their whole lives so they have consistently high levels of cortisol in their bodies. When cortisol remains at these levels for such long periods of time, it weakens the immune system, prevents the body from properly absorbing nutrients and eventually can cause disease. In addition to that, caged hens are customarily fed cheap processed grain and / or forage byproducts, which make up a totally inferior diet, lacking true nutritional value. Therefore conventional eggs, reflecting a very unhealthy and stressful lifestyle, have very low amount of quality nutrients and protein. In general it has been found that cage-free, pastured eggs give you:
- 2/3 more vitamin A
- 3-4 times more omega-3 fatty acids
- 3 times more vitamin E
- 7 times more beta carotene
- 4-6 times the vitamin D
The following table summarizes the differences in nutritional value found between confined and cage – free chicken.
| All values are per 100 grams of egg. |
Vitamin E (mg) |
Vitamin A (IU) |
Beta Carotene (mcg) |
Omega-3s (g) |
Cholesterol (mg) |
Saturated Fat (g) |
| Eggs from Confined Birds (per USDA Nutrient Database) |
0.97 |
487 |
10 |
0.22 |
423 |
3.1 |
| Eggs from Non-Confined Birds(Mother Earth News, 2007) |
3.73 |
791.86 |
79.03 |
0.66 |
277 |
2.4 |
http://www.motherearthnews.com/uploadedFiles/Eggs%20chart.pdf
So when it comes to conventional eggs you know what to expect really… between cage free and pastured eggs though you can find several subcategories, indicating differences in the diet and lifestyle provided. The following groups can be usually found:
- Free Range: Chickens that have access to the outside, not necessarily pastured though.
- Omega -3: These cage- free birds are fed more flax and canola seeds so that the content of omega 3 in the egg is higher.
- Organic: Cage free chickens fed organic, vegetarian food, not subjected to antibiotics, hormones or pesticides.
As chickens, like most birds really, are omnivores, their natural diet is not just plants or grains. That’s why the best ever quality of eggs you can get is from a farmer with a proper farm. A chicken strolling around will eat a bit of a grass, a few worms and bugs and maybe some seeds that will be available nearby. It literally eats a bit of everything really and this is its natural diet. Therefore, you can expect to get eggs with the highest quality and quantity of nutrients from farms and farmers markets. Look out for local farmers and support them, it’s a win – win for us all to try and buy locally farmed products; we get the best possible quality and the farmers thrive and expand their beautiful farms so that more and more people can have access to their magnificent products 
