Are you an egg lover like me (until randomly they gross you out… you know what I mean)?
I’m sure you’ve seen thousands of Tik-Tok recipes, and I’ll be first to admit I’ve tried more than a few!
But you know what surprises me most?
I see so many people (even friends and family) questioning whether or not eggs are good for your health. I used to also – I was one of the people who did only egg whites at one point thinking it was bad for my cholesterol.
Yet they (and I used to as well) eat pre-packaged junk food and pop ibuprofen like it’s nothing. 
But the moment someone says they eat 5 eggs a day?
Jaws drop.
Nutritional guidelines proposed by the American Heart Association warned people to limit their egg consumption because of their high cholesterol content.
But—that was in 1960…64 years ago!
New studies show that eating eggs does not increase the risk of obesity or heart disease.
Here’s why:
There’s this thing called high-density lipoprotein (HDL) and HDL cholesterol is linked to a lower risk of heart disease and stroke.
Those 1960’s dietary recs were based on the now outdated but still often heard idea that eating large amounts of dietary cholesterol led to high LDL cholesterol levels in the blood.
Basically saying that eating a few eggs a day increased the risk of developing heart disease.
In reality?
2 things actually affect the overall nutritional value of an egg:
- The chicken’s diet
- The chicken’s environment
That’s why I typically stick with organic pasture-raised eggs.
Pasture raised means the hen is raised in an environment that’s consistent with how they would naturally live – roaming free and eating what is outside in the grass.
The Takeaway:
When raised in healthy conditions, eggs are not bad for your health. A fascinating study comparing the n-3 fatty acids in egg yolks from pasture-raised to caged hens revealed something remarkable. Yolks from pasture-raised hens boasted 4.5 times more alpha-linolenic acid (ALA) and twice the amount of eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) than their caged counterparts – AKA a lot better for you nutrition wise!
Not all eggs are created equal and understanding the differences is the key to living the low-tox high life.
My Recommendations
Do Purchase:
- Organic Pasture-Raised Eggs – the healthiest eggs to buy, no question. Pasture-raised means that the hens are free to roam and graze freely in an open pasture.
Don’t Purchase:
- Caged Eggs – these hens are raised in cages. This is bad news for the hen and for the eggs from a moral and nutritional standpoint. Caged hens are 7.77 times more likely to produce eggs that harbor salmonella.
- Cage Free Eggs – Sounds good, right? Unfortunately, it still means the hens are kept in a coop or small enclosure. When hens can’t go outside, they can’t flush toxins out of their bodies. That means they’re generally not healthy and when they get sick, they get antibiotics — which end up in the eggs that you consume.
- Free Range Eggs – means minimal outdoor space—merely 2 square feet per bird—and no guarantee that the hens actually experience the outdoors. They might be confined to barns with only a small access point to the outside, lacking stringent government oversight on the quality and duration of their outdoor exposure.
At A Glance
That’s a lot of information to remember and digest (especially when you’re already trying to keep your grocery list straight!)
If you follow my Do v.s. Don’t list above and remember these three bullet points below, you’ll be well on your way to making healthier decisions.
- Not all eggs are created equal. When raised in healthy conditions, eggs are GOOD for health.
- Terms like caged, cage-free, free range, and pasture-raised eggs all refer to the environment in which hens live.
- Pasture-raised eggs (also known as pastured eggs) are by far the best eggs to buy, but make sure you at least get free range if pasture raised isn’t an option.
