Let's Talk About Eggs: Part 1

My chickens mill around the yard eating bugs, scooping up fruit that's fallen from the trees and making nesting holes in the mulched flower beds around the house.  There was a time when it seemed odd to me that people would have chickens walking freely around their homes. I even read an article that said when you till your garden, just let the chickens in with you and they'll eat up the grubs they find in the dirt.  Again, something I had a hard time picturing, but raising my own chickens was, in my mind, becoming a necessity.

FreeFoto.com.
As I studied nutrition, I came across information alerting me that the eggs I was buying from the store came from diseased chickens! I immediately stopped buying them and because we still lived in town at the time, I sought out a local farmer who had pasture raised eggs.  The movie Food, Inc. displayed quite an eye opening view of the typical poultry farm and it was enough to make me never want to eat another store bought egg again. I recommend everyone watch it!

Store bought eggs, next to store bought milk, are some of the worst man-made concoctions a person can put in their mouth... let alone their children's mouths.  So, in part one of this series, let's just first consider a few things we should all be aware of regarding eggs:

• Most of the eggs currently sold in supermarkets are nutritionally inferior to eggs produced by hens raised on pasture. 
• Eggs from hens raised on pasture show 4 to 6 times as much vitamin D as typical supermarket eggs. 
• Pasture raised eggs have 1⁄3 less cholesterol• 1⁄4 less saturated fat• 2⁄3 more vitamin A• 2 times more omega-3 fatty acids• 3 times more vitamin E• 7 times more beta carotene.