visiting the egg aisle
Eggs have always been a symbol of Easter week and of life itself. In recent years eggs have been out of favor, then back on the good listl. Besides being a token of life, eggs are one of the best sources of needed nutrients, including:
a) the omega-3 fats, ALA and DHA (DHA is essential to the brain, eyes, and nerves);
b) vitamin A, lutein and zeaxanthin, which help prevent vision problems like cataracts and macular degeneration;
c) a complete source of the essential protein amino acids, and
c) important antioxidants like vitamin E and selenium.
The basic egg has been changing—we can buy eggs in five forms now:
• Regular: The basic low-cost egg from grain-fed caged chickens. According to the U.S.D.A., the egg contains 37 mg of omega-3s, roughly 1/4th is DHA.
• Cage free: I bet the chickens are clucking about their new door-less cages, but they eat the same diet of grains as caged chickens. So same egg, you just pay a little more.
• Flaxseed omega-3 eggs: These eggs typically come from cage free chickens fed grains plus some flaxseed to boost their total omega-3. Some eggs claim 115, others 225 mg. DHA, the important omega-3, gets a little boost (I have heard of 75-80 mg. but I’m doubtful as it’s not shown on the label.)
• Marine-fed omega-3 eggs: To really boost DHA, chickens are fed fishmeal, fish oil, or micro-algae, and the DHA level can reach 150 mg. The supplier of cultivated algae requires licensed farms to use the “Gold Circle Farms” label on the eggs.
• Pastured eggs: These chickens live in movable cages so get sunshine and eat pasture greens and insects supplemented with grain. These are the healthiest chickens and eggs but are as rare as hen’s teeth. Bad joke.
The Egg Aisle: I did a tour of the grocery stores in my area, to see what I could find in the way of eggs, and learned a few things:
1. The best deal was Costco’s Norco Organic high-omega eggs at $3.19 per dozen (but sold in 18-count cartons). Omega-3 content was 225 mg per egg. I expected Costco to be cheaper, but I thought the other stores might offer a quality advantage. They didn’t.
2. Costco also had a rock bottom price for eggs from caged chickens but we’re not going there.
3. Of the omega-3 fats, DHA is most deficient in our diet so getting more is a big issue. I was surprised that no store I visited is offering a DHA-enhanced egg.
4. What are the egg companies pushing? Free-range, cage-free, or hens living with roosters. The documentary Food Inc. gets a lot of credit but kindness to chickens now trumps nutrition.
5. Who has the best DHA eggs? Maybe the poultry firms licensed by Gold Circle Farms. They claim 150 mg of DHA per egg from their special diet but I didn’t find them in the stores I searched. I sent an e-mail to Henry’s (our whole foods market) and got a quick call from the store director saying people hadn’t been buying them (there is about a $1.00 premium, a bargain considering the higher DHA) but he would try them again. I’ll pick some up tomorrow.
6. The best food source for DHA omega-3? If you bought the following foods for just the DHA (not a bad idea) here is what you would pay per gram:
a. If you bought Costco’s high-omega egg, I estimate you are paying $6.00 for a gram of DHA.
b. If you find the Gold Circle high-DHA eggs, the cost is roughly $2.50.
c. If you get DHA in Nature Made fish oil capsules, you pay $5 per gram.
d. If you buy farmed salmon you pay roughly $2.50.
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Bottom line: Enjoy salmon (plus other cold-water fish) and high-omega eggs in your diet; the Gold Circle eggs are a bargain despite the premium and deserve our support.
Why We Need DHA:
DHA is an essential fatty acid of the omega-3 family. It is critical to the systems in the body involved with data: the brain, eyes, and nervous system. Deficiency is linked to depression, dementia, memory dysfunction, attention-deficit disorders, and mental diseases. Though not proven, some theorize that obesity and violent behavior can be added to the list. In a future post we’ll talk more about DHA—it’s the most interesting fat.
Friday, April 22, 2011 at 11:51AM | by Skip Hellewell | 21 Comments | 2 References | Share Article | in fats 101, grocery shopping | Email Article 
Reader Comments (21)
I've been buying pastured eggs from my local farmer for over a year now. I'll never go back to store-bought eggs. The farm eggs taste noticeably better and cost $3.50 per dozen, which is totally worth it to me.
Skip, I know you're married (and so I am I), but with posts like these, where you been all my life?!
Seriously, it's not a newsflash at this point that "we" all thank you for these posts. You are doing the research I should but just don't have time to do. Many, many thanks! Now to talk to my local farm and grocers about those Gold Circle Eggs. (My husband goes fishing in Alaska for salmon each year, so we are stocked up in that regard,)
Joy, very smart of your husband to combine a fishing vacation with filling the freezer with salmon. For the blog, the research challenge is to deliver the information that makes a difference. So we need guidance on what questions to address. Thanks for your support. Best.
YAY I have pastured eggs, GO ME! This is a timely article as I spent the day with my husband moving a flock of chicks/pullets from their brooder to their temporarily home until the assimilate with the older flock. A few years ago ( when we started our first little flock) our tween- now teen daughter was having fainting spells. My Ped said for her to increase her iron by "eating a healthy egg a day". When I inquired what a healthy egg was, my Ukrainian Ped said " preferably one you raise yourself or someone you would trust your child with"
Skip ( or another one of the wise community members here,I have a question off topic.... with all this enlightened of sugar here, any one know how we can can this year with out using sugar in our jellies, peaches, etc. Honey heated at that temp is not recommended . I can't find any info. I ever looked for how to can in juice ....still no luck.
I'm feeling pretty lucky to live in a rural area, after this post. Farm fresh eggs are easy to come by at $1.50 a dozen. I better go get some!
Heather—such a good doctor. And a good question: What is the future of preserving fruits, if sugar is not used? Dried fruit? How to live without freezer jam (which has as much sugar as fruit)? What of the P&J sandwich? Goal here is to get the best mileage out of our sugar allowance.
I love eggs, and eating them ensures that I get more Omega 3's than I would otherwise since I seriously despise fish, especially salmon. It is a sad failure of mine to hate the taste of fish. I blame my parents for forcing cod liver oil on me every morning from fall to spring. Actually, I'm really glad they did it, since my mother also dislikes fish and so I got some very good things from the oil I would otherwise not have gotten. Nowadays, I tend to take my fish oil in caplet form - easy to swallow and none of the fishy taste. Skip, in your future Omega-3 post could you give us your take on the molecularly-distilled fish oil being sold today? Is it a viable alternative to eating salmon or am I just fooling myself? I hate taking a vitamin pill to replace real food but honestly I don't know if I could eat enough eggs to make up the difference!
Just wanted to thank you for this blog. I'm so glad that someone is focusing on the "shoulds" in the Word of Wisdom, as so often we only look at the "should nots". However, the information you present applies to everyone, not just those who want to follow the WoW. Having all this good information in one easy location is great, and I am already recommending people read this for a good primer on increasing healthy living.
After a little reading and research (specifically the book Eating Animals) I've sworn off of grocery store eggs and haven't bought any for almost a year. All of my eggs come from the farmer's market/co-op and I love opening up the carton to see a myriad of colors, shapes, and sizes. I will be honest and say I'm not sure I taste *that* much of a difference, but I believe they are healthier, and I believe God's creatures deserve better than de-beaking and overcrowding in cages. Plus I'm contributing to less antibiotics overall in our environment!
I don't know why, but these suped-up eggs make me vaguely distrustful. It just seems like so much calcium added to orange juice or the label on Lucky Charms touting their fiber (nevermind the sugar and dye and what-have-you). Why can't food just be food without us messing around with it? Is it even good for chickens to eat that stuff?
I do really enjoy your posts and they have really helped me to think about the food choices that I make for me and my daughter and to make better choices.
Skip, thank you for this blog. I've been reading it since January and there is something interesting, useful and surprising in every post, and always something that encourages me to improve my diet. I believe I eat a healthy diet, but as I am seeing, there are always places it can be fine tuned! I always buy what are labelled free range organic eggs (here in the UK), for the sake of the chickens and for the lack of 'added extras' and can't help wondering whether messing about with an egg by boosting any particular nutrient is a good idea!
Sarah, chickens that are truly free range (significant part of diet is bugs and natural greens along with some grain) make sense as the best source. In the US at least there is a lot of chicanery around terms like free range as it may only mean the barn door is left open after eating habits are established so the chicken doesn't venture out or when she ventures out there isn't real pasture. I'll get more information about eggs supplemented with marine products in food. Thanks for following the blog.
Hi Skip, I have two questions for you. What is your interpretation of the literature on recommended daily intakes of omega-3s? This is not really my realm of expertise, and the recommendations I've seen have been less than definitive. I am mostly concerned about my children. We do get omega-3 enriched eggs here (the label says they have 100mg of DHA) but it doesn't seem like the eggs alone would be enough to meet their daily requirement. Fish is not really an option for us for most of the year, because the ones that are high in omega-3s are not available where we live. (The kids do eat wild Alaskan salmon when we are in the US in the summers.) So, this brings me to my second question. I have considered the fish oil capsules but have heard that they are poorly regulated (as nutritional supplements tend to be) and that they can have high mercury content. Again, this is not my area of expertise. Do you have any thoughts on this? Thanks for all the work you put into this blog. It's very informative and a much-needed service!
Sheela, these are good omega-3 questions. We'll address this in an upcoming post but here is a little info.
Two important omega-3 fatty acids are ALA (the most common form, found in flaxseed, green plants and walnuts) and DHA (found in cold-water fish like sardines, tuna and salmon, and to a lesser degree in pasture-fed animals, and pastured eggs). The body can make DHA from ALA but the output is limited so we need to include DHA in the diet. In humans DHA is found in the data centers (brain, nerves, eyes) and is important to many functions.
So far, there is no official Dietary Reference Intake but in 2002 a Recommended Adequate Intake was suggested for total omega-3 of 1.1 to 1.6 gram/day, depending on weight, and 1.4 for pregnant women. No guidance has been given for DHA alone. (See DHAOmega-3.org for more info.)
Basic rule: Try to include some form of omega-3 in each meal. Until we get better guidance, the DHA goal in our home is to eat cold-water fish 2/week, and 3-4 healthy eggs/week. The DHA source that is both cheap and low in mercury is the humble sardine, once a delicacy but now disdained. One source says selenium (eat 1-2 Brazil nuts daily) is protective to tissue from mercury. If we miss out on fish, we try to take a fish oil pill.
Check the recent article "Pregnant? Eat Fish!" by Dr. Andrew Weil (you can find it by Google) for more information. Weil cites a Lancet article to claim omega-3 benefits override possible mercury harm to brain development.
Skip, thanks so much for taking the time to respond. This is helpful, and I look forward to future posts about this issue!
Skip, what about organic vs. not organic eggs? How do you rank the organic ones?
Thanks!
Kristin, the value of paying for the organic label varies with how well the term is defined. With eggs I understand the term to simply mean the grains are not GMO, nor exposed to herbicides, pesticides, etc. This is good but the real issue with eggs is not the grains, but outdoor access to pasture greens and bugs. Chickens with flaxseed included in the diet are higher in the ALA omega-3; those with marine products like algae are higher in the DHA omega-3 of which we are widely deficient. So I look for omega-3 more than the organic claim. Best.
Thanks, Skip! Very helpful.
Here's a post you may be interested in: http://www.re-nest.com/re-nest/organic-free-range-and-conventional-the-truth-about-eggs-145788
I thought the reference and link to he Cornucopia Institute was of value.
Our Costco in NC only has the Egglands's Best DHA eggs...what is your take on that brand?
Still looking to you for WOW in all things edible!