How Do They Get More Nutrients In Those Eggs?
Posted by terrepruitt on August 30, 2011
When I first saw an egg package that said the egg had more nutrients I made a mental note to look into that. I had been thinking, “How can they do that? Did they inject the egg with the additional nutrients they claimed it had?” I mean it seems like that is how they would have to do it, right?
The last time I was in the store buying eggs I grabbed a carton that said, “Now! For Your Nutritious Diet High In . . . ” in big flashy letters. All the while I am thinking, “Ok, I’m a sucker.”
First of all let me share with you some other information that I found while looking up the information on “more nutritious” eggs.
Brown eggs are NOT more nutritious than white eggs. I was under the impression that brown eggs were better for you. Don’t know when I heard that or who from, but that is what I always thought. Turns out it is actually the color of the hen that determines the color of the egg. A brown egg comes from a hen with red feathers and a white egg comes from a hen with white feathers.
A brown egg might be more nutritious than a white egg if the hen laying the brown egg was fed better feed. Ya see, THAT is how eggs get more nutrition packed into them . . . the feed. What the chicken eats is what affects the nutrition of an egg. When I was looking for information I saw many things that said organic is best and free range is best. This makes sense to me because eating food without a lot of chemicals on it seems to be better for all of us and being able to eat what is natural is another thing that seems to be best. So an organic egg would mean that the chicken’s diet did not have a lot of chemicals on it. A free range egg would mean that the chicken was able to roam free and eat what a chicken would naturally eat.
The eggs that I purchased claimed to have won awards for best taste. I don’t eat eggs plain so I don’t know that I can actually tell a better tasting egg. These eggs also claim that their hens are feed “an improved all-natural, all-vegetarian diet with no animal fats or animal by-products.” The inside of the carton continues to say that the no hormones are added to the laying hens’ diets and no antibiotics are “used in the production of the Egg-land’s Best eggs.”
Now a hen’s natural diet would include insects. I don’t know if insects are considered ok in a vegetarian diet or if these hens don’t actually get any insects. But according to the packaging the diet fed to these chickens makes the eggs high in vitamins D, B12, and E. Also the were able to produce eggs with 25% less saturated fat than regular eggs. The pretty packaging claims there is 115 mg of Omega 3 and 200 mcg of Lutein. At this point there is no RDA for either nutrient, but Omega 3 is an essential fatty acid that cannot be produced in the body. Lutein acts as an antioxidant which helps protect cells from damage caused by free radicals. So eggs containing these two nutrients seem like a better choice to me.
The Egg-Land’s Best claims their diet is patented. From what I have seen in looking around, in order to produce Omega 3 enhanced eggs the hen’s would have to be feed flax seed or fish oils. I am thinking that fish oil would make the diet not vegetarian. Some things I glanced at in looking into this topic suggested that eggs produced by hens who had fish oil as part of their diet produced a fishy tasting egg. Again, not sure about that, but it make me giggle.
I just think it is interesting that the only way to produce a more nutritious egg is to feed the hens better nutrition. Kind of telling, yes?
Terre Pruitt's Blog 
Michele said
Love it, what you put in does affect what comes out! I was just talking with my sister about this in relation to children – what you put into them affects what (who) comes out. This chicken and egg post makes sense, and again make me question how food is labeled…such a huge subject. thanks Terre!
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terrepruitt said
That old saying, huh? “Garbage in garbage out.” It is difficult though to know what truely IS “garbage” becuase some things that are marketed as “healthy” and “good for you” are not necessarily so when you really look at what it is made of. And then there is so much controversy as to what is healthy and what is not.
I love eggs and since I don’t like fish I love that I can get a little bit of Omega 3 from my eggs! Wahoo! Thank you so much for taking the time to read and comment!
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suzicate said
Thank you for this information…I always wondered why some were brown and some white. And I always thought brown were more nutritious, too!
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terrepruitt said
Ha, me TOO! The information I was reading all said that brown eggs being more nutritious is a common misconception. Funny. I wonder we were ALL (well, a lot of us) heard that.
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