Eggs are Nutritional Powerhouses

[Jiffer]

Since the subject of whether or not egg yokes are healthy or not came up in another thread, I thought I'd share some things I've read on the subject, which is why I make sure I eat organically certified whole eggs every day. And, by the way, my cholesterol levels are normal, per the test I just had.

- Jordan Rubin, author of The Great Physician's Rx for Health and Wellness, says that eggs are a powerhouse of nutrition. They have six grams of protein, a bit of vitamin B12, vitamin E, lutein, riboflavin, folic acid, calcium, zinc, iron, and essential fatty acids. As long as you're shopping for certified organic, high omega-3 eggs, you'll be eating one of the healthiest foods out there. (A hard boiled egg yoke is the first whole food Jordan Rubin fed his son.)

- Michael Murray, the primary author of The Encyclopedia of Healing Foods, said that several studies have indicated that moderate egg consumption as little effect on cholesterol levels.

- Harvard University researchers found in a study that increasing cholesterol intake by 200 mg for every 1,000 calories in the diet, which is about one egg a day, did not appreciably increase the risk for heart disease.

- Dr. Mercola states that researchers of previous studies claiming eggs were bad for cholesterol levels never took into account the specific subclasses of LDL cholesterol. The larger subclasses of LDL found in eggs are not dangerous. There have been a number of studies that have supported the idea that eggs do not increase your risk of heart disease. So rest assured, you can go ahead and have your eggs, for they are one of the healthiest foods in the world.

[nscrbug]

So what are some good brands of organic, omega-3 eggs that I could find at the supermarket for a reasonable price? I generally buy the store brand's eggs because they are cheaper and I usually just boil them up, eating the white and tossing the yolk. I do have whole eggs about 1x per week...I prefer scrambled, on a whole wheat english muffin. :D On occasion, I will buy Eggland's Best eggs when they are on sale and I have a coupon, but otherwise they are close to $4/dozen...that is way too expensive, IMO. Most of the organic or omega-3 eggs I've seen, are also incredibly expensive...and since I go through a dozen or so in a week, it's hard to justify spending that much money on a carton of eggs.

[Veronica]

So what are some good brands of organic, omega-3 eggs that I could find at the supermarket for a reasonable price? I generally buy the store brand's eggs because they are cheaper and I usually just boil them up, eating the white and tossing the yolk. I do have whole eggs about 1x per week...I prefer scrambled, on a whole wheat english muffin. :D On occasion, I will buy Eggland's Best eggs when they are on sale and I have a coupon, but otherwise they are close to $4/dozen...that is way too expensive, IMO. Most of the organic or omega-3 eggs I've seen, are also incredibly expensive...and since I go through a dozen or so in a week, it's hard to justify spending that much money on a carton of eggs.

Think about what other things you might spend $4.00 - do you go to Starbucks, eat out much? That's only .33 cents per egg.

Veronica

[nscrbug]

Think about what other things you might spend $4.00 - do you go to Starbucks, eat out much? That's only .33 cents per egg.

Veronica

Nope...don't drink coffee (or pop) so no Starbucks for me. We rarely eat out...if I had to guess, maybe 1x/month...if that. Food is SO expensive nowadays, IMO...at least in my area...might not be the case where you are. It's not JUST the eggs...it's everything else too. Organic anything in my area is always going to be double, if not triple the price of non-organic...that's just the way it is here. When you have a cart full of groceries, it all adds up. I have to justify the cost of certain things, otherwise our grocery bill can get way out of hand.

[GLC1968]

I would check for local farmers. Heck, even a drive into the country should turn up at least a couple of small farms with 'fresh eggs' for sale. This time of year, eggs are extremely plentiful so they should be cheap. I'm selling ours for $2.50 a dozen (farm fresh, free range and in multi-colors to boot!) and I'm not alone. I would also look at farmers markets - again, this time of year, most farmers are overwhelmed with eggs and are willing to sell them for a lot less than you'd find at a grocery store just to be rid of them.

It will be a totally different story in December, of course. ;)

[Veronica]

That's about what the eggs cost here too. It amazes me what we spend on groceries just for the two of us. Pity you don't have some vice you could give up. :D

Veronica

[redrhodie]

I love eggs.

[Crankin]

I love eggs and buy the organic omega 3 ones. I don't necessarily buy organic for everything or even all my produce, but from what I have read, eggs are the one place it really makes a difference.
Veronica, I spend as much or more on groceries than I did with 2 growing boys in the house. And that's adjusted for inflation. I really don't mind, either, because I see the type of eating I do as an investment in my health. I don't buy soda, crappy store bought desserts, or other junk. I like to cook and look forward to sitting down to a good meal. I also go out at least twice a week and I like to explore new foods in a restaurant before I attempt to make it.

[tulip]

I buy good eggs (organic, free range or at least cage free) and organic milk even though it costs more. 33-cents per egg is hardly going to break my bank, as I eat a few a week. Organic milk just tastes better IMO. I'm still able to keep my weekly grocery bill at about $60, and I rarely eat out. That's just for me, I'm just shopping for myself.

I would like to buy organic meat more often but my local store doesn't carry it and I rarely find myself near the health food store that does. Now that it's farmer's market season, however, I'll be able to find organic or at least local meat and chicken closer to home.

I grow the majority of my own veggies in the spring, summer and fall, and this coming winter I plan to grow winter greens under hoops. I have a neighbor who occasionally gives me eggs from his chickens in exchange for homemade bread, but I've been too busy to bake bread, so we have not been doing the trade lately.

[KnottedYet]

Think about what other things you might spend $4.00 - do you go to Starbucks, eat out much? That's only .33 cents per egg.

Veronica

And if you eat the whole egg instead of wasting half of it, your dozen will go twice as far.

[Crankin]

Ah, yeah. Food and bikes. The most important things to spend $ on.

[KnottedYet]

Let Hannah Hart's eggy wisdom wash through you on Episode 3: Omelette You Finish, of "My Drunk Kitchen" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glwkK7turPY&feature=related

"Do you ever feel like your cat is judging you?"

(ok, it wasn't about eggs, but that line made me laugh)

[smilingcat]

We've been forced to buy eggs from Trader Joe's. Our chicken stopped laying after they were moved here to Portland area. Next week, we will be letting them out into our yard in a chicken run.

Our chicken gives us eggs which are simply eggier than store bought ones. Even the organic Omega-3 ++, free range ... eggs don't compare to the eggs from our chicken. They love to eat worms, grubs, earwigs digging through the compost pile looking for pill bugs. All that turns into very tasty eggier eggs.

Store bought one just falls flat!!

Do what the French do, go for quality not volume. Two store bought eggs don't do a thing for me but one of our own eggs satiate my hunger. Our heirloom tomato is not only tasty but satisfy my hunger. Store bought one does not.

When our expenses are figured in, our eggs cost more than $3.00 dozen but we don't have to eat the whole dozen to feel good. Smaller portion but higher quality.

Our omlettes have a rich deep yellow color not the pale whitish yelllow tinge. You can taste the difference.

Point of contention for many organic vs concentrated animal feed lot operation is that yes the "commercially" grown food can be had for less than 1/2 the cost of organic but you will be paying on the back end with increased health care cost. I haven't seen a definitive research to say one way or the other.

Our birds also get flax seed in their feed.

Another thing to think about. LDL is a precursor to most of the hromones and other chemicals in our body. If you stress out, your body will be generating lot more LDLs. Just because you eat LDL doesn't mean that it goes directly into your blood stream.
LDL would have to survive the strong acids in your stomach then must survive another corrosive environment in your intestine/colon and to be absorbed intact. I don't think that happens. Food LDL into body LDL is just too simplistic and nieve view. Just my 2cents.

We buy organic free range hromone free eggs.

[malkin]

We use good eggs when it matters (e.g. omlettes or mayo) and lousy cheap ones when the eggs are hidden in cake or pasta. Someday, I'll probably slip up and use good eggs in pasta, and Brewer will notice the difference, and we'll quit using the lousy ones altogether.

[grey]

If you think about it, $4/dozen isn't bad. It is sticker shock because we are so used to food in this country being cheap. Ask Europeans what they pay for food, it's crazy. DH and I got through phases where we eat TONS of eggs (not right now, we seem to be on a veggie kick)

The point about heading to Starbucks for a $4 coffee is very true. I used to work at an organic vegan restaurant, and a customer balked at the thought of paying $3 for a glass of fresh carrot juice - we pressed the carrots in the back to order. It takes a number of carrots to make that juice!

We get some of our eggs from a friend - his birds are not entirely free range nor organic, but the feed is balanced & they do get to eat bugs. The difference is night and day between his eggs and the $4 eggs in the store. Would love to have my own birds but our yard just isn't big enough.

This country's structure just isn't set up right. Food (mostly the stuff in the middle of the store) is cheap, and gas used to be cheap. Now it isn't, and prices are increasing. This hurts us mostly because... we still need to use gas to get everywhere, so what else can we cut?

The other point about paying more up front for your food rather than going cheap because your health will bite you in the end is also true.

I'm vegetarian, which means going to the store can practically rape my wallet. I supplant what we grow in our yard with the farmer's market and it's about half the cost (and closer to the earth) than going to the store. $15 got me 2 bunches of gorgeous shallots, 2 pounds of baby red potatoes, 1 bunch of leeks, 2 pints strawberries, 8 bananas, 3 avacado, 3 chiles, 2 pounds Roma tomatoes, 1 bunch cilantro, 4 FAT carrots, 5 plums, 2 asian pears, 8 baby squash and one fellow threw in a canteloupe for free. He always throws in something (his stuff isn't organic, it's the same as what you'd get in the store, just cheaper). I eat organic as much as possible, you can taste the difference.

I'm just saying - maybe there's another way to cut costs somewhere so you can have the $4 eggs?

[GLC1968]

I'm just saying - maybe there's another way to cut costs somewhere so you can have the $4 eggs?

I'm a big believer in this. Quality food is important to me in so many ways. I don't buy eggs or meat from the grocery store and yet our bill is still ~$120 weekly for just two of us. (Now that we won't be buying organic milk anymore either, it'll go down by $5 a week.) What I do buy is expensive and I'm willing to pay it even if it means cutting back in other areas. We don't take vacations, we don't buy fancy clothes, we only have smart phones because our work pays for them, our cars have over 100K miles on them and we go out on the town *maybe* once every six months...but I will not cut corners on food.

Americans have gotten so used to cheap food (and gas) that it's really hard to comprehend that in most places on this planet, a family's food budget is often 30-50% of their total budget. Here in America, I think it's like 10% on average or something crazy like that. I'm all about shifting it and helping my health, the local economy, the planet and my personal satisfaction along the way.

[emily_in_nc]

Money spent on good food is money well spent. Think about it; every cell in our bodies reflects what we put into them. Garbage in, garbage out.

I never regret money spent on good food. As GLC points out, if you rarely go out to eat (we also rarely do that), you can afford to buy better food to eat at home. You can buy good food for a week on what one "upscale" meal out can cost.

[Susan]

I pay almost 3€ for 6 organic eggs.

If I think about the chicken of my parents in law, how they are fed and have to be cared for, how every egg has to be searched and picked up in the morning, and the chicken have to be brought in in the evening so that the fox doesn't get them, I don't think that's an unfair price.
I may not be cheap but the animals are happy and live a good life and I don't have to feel guilty if I eat those eggs. And they taste great and are probably better for me than cheap ones would be.

[Pax]

... Here in America, I think it's like 10% on average or something crazy like that.

I just did the math, our food budget is 7% of our income, and we buy primarily organic food. Once my SO's job ends in the Fall it will change to 19% of our income. Still less than other people on the planet have to pay, and that's with only one of us bringing in any money. We definitely have no concept of the cost of real food here.

[Reesha]

MMm eggs. I have 6 young pullets in my back yard happily pecking at grass, bugs and worms (and grower feed) so they can grow up and lay beautiful eggs for breakfast. The coop has been sort of an expensive construction project, but the eggs will be well worth it. Plus, my sheltie thinks of the chickens as her 'pets'. The joy she gets from herding them around is priceless :D

[abejita]

I just got 6 pullets myself!!!

[Reesha]

All right, all right! One of my chickens went missing shortly after I posted this. She flew out of the backyard I think and is wandering the neighborhood. I hope we find her tomorrow!

[abejita]

I read that when they are pullets they are most likely to wonder...once they start laying, they tend to stay closer to home.

Mine don't really get the chance to get out the yard. There coop is about 8x10 and then I have a 20x30 area that I fenced in for them. I also put poultry wire over the top of it because we have a lot of hawks in the the area.

Hope you find your girl!

[abejita]

did you find your hen?

[Reesha]

Not yet! I sent an e-mail out to my neighbors though. Hopefully we'll get her back, but she may be lost for good :( Poor Gussie.