The Truth About Eggs

Over the past year I’ve been contemplating eggs.  I know, weird.  Who does that?!  Like everyone, I used to buy my eggs at the supermarket – 99 cents a dozen.  Cheap food.  Then I started reading about eggs—particularly, factory eggs.  Very quickly my fantasy image of chickens running around in the grass, squawking and pecking, dissolved into mist as I learned how laying hens are actually raised in the real world of factory hen houses.  I guess I was pretty naïve. 

So I started buying the “organic” eggs, which by the way, are three to four times more expensive—but worth it, in my estimation, because they were bound to be a healthier product. Right?  Well... maybe.

Knowledge is progressive, you know.  As soon as you’re confident you know the truth about something, up pops another inconvenient fact to throw your confidence to the wind.  Last year I picked up a book with an intriguing title, Folks, This Ain’t Normal, by the notorious naturalist farmer, Joel Salatin of Polyface Farm fame.  And I discovered the significant difference between “organic” eggs and authentically free-ranged eggs.  Many of the egg brands claiming “free range” or “cage free” merely house their chickens in a giant barn instead of cages.  They may or may not get any actual ranging.  One brand claims to allow a 1.75 square feet indoor space and a whole 5 square feet outdoor space per hen… except in California where they’re worried about avian flu.  Generous, don’t you think?  But hardly what most people would consider free-range.  Pastured chickens are actually allowed – even encouraged – to run around in a pasture or field and peck in the grass.  Don’t be fooled by the “organic” label.

Chickens are scavengers by nature. If left to run around on their own, they eat grass and wild plants and scratch around for bugs.  They require protein in their diet, and a strictly vegetarian-fed chicken will be undernourished. If you buy eggs certified as “vegetarian fed,” those eggs will be short-changed in the nutrition department.

In a recent study sponsored by Mother Earth News, the USDA standard nutritional egg profile (factory egg) was compared to eggs from twelve different pastured egg producers.  One of those pastured egg producers was the aforementioned Polyface Farm.  The results were notable.  Salatin’s pastured eggs had more than 7 times the vitamin E, beta-carotene and omega-3s, twice the vitamin A, and over 10,000 times the folate (a B vitamin) of factory eggs.  Not only that, they contained about half the cholesterol and about 30% less saturated fat (if you worry about those things).  It’s fair to assume that all eggs from chickens allowed to roam freely in a pasture or grassy field will have similar results.  You can see the difference in the yolks.  Pastured egg yolks have a rich orangey color to them.  It's true - you're going to pay more for real pastured eggs, but, like the old saying goes... you get what you pay for!

Eggs have had a bad rap over the years, primarily due to the misunderstanding of the role of dietary cholesterol on the body.  But eggs are loaded with nutritional goodness.  For starters, the protein in eggs is the highest quality protein found in any food, according to the experts at IncredibleEgg.org.

In addition, egg yolks are the richest source of choline, an important nutrient that helps with the body’s chemical processes.  The body is capable of making some but relies on the diet for most of what it needs.  Choline is a key component of acetylcholine, the primary chemical responsible for sending messages between nerves and muscles.  It is also a main component of many fat-containing structures in cell membranes, keeping them flexible and maintaining structural integrity.  Choline also helps protect the body against inflammation.  Most people are deficient.  The recommended intake of choline is 550 mg/day for men and 425 mg/day for women—two large eggs (yolks, not whites) provide roughly 225 mg.  Getting enough choline is especially important for pregnant women because it is essential for brain and memory development in the baby.

Another valuable nutrient in eggs is lutein, which supports eye health and is thought to be important in preventing macular degeneration and cataracts. Though spinach is also high in lutein, the body absorbs this nutrient more readily from egg yolks.  The reason for this is lutein is a fat-soluble nutrient, and cannot be absorbed unless fat is also present.  Make a spinach omelet, and you'll get a very tasty double-dose of this nutrient!

Nutritionists still worry, though, about the dangers of eating too many eggs.  They recommend one a day, though no reason for this restriction is given (that I have found), and I suspect it’s related to the lingering fear that dietary cholesterol is connected to heart disease, a belief that is being gradually debunked by research—specifically a total lack of evidence for such a connection.

So unless you’re allergic to eggs, eat up! 

Finding good quality eggs is not easy these days; but with a little effort, it is possible.  If you live in a rural area, check around for farmers that may have eggs for sale.  If you’re more of an urban dweller, look for farmer’s markets.  Make sure you ask questions about pasturing and feed.  Avoid eggs from hens that are fed a soy-based feed.  The dangerous soy protein isoflavones have been found to transfer into the eggs of the chickens that eat it!  

Once you’ve experienced real eggs, you’ll never go back to those imitation factory eggs again!

Water, Water Everywhere...

Whatever happened to good clean water? In my late teens (back in the stone age), I took a trip with a church youth group up into the Montana Rocky Mountains and drank, unafraid, at the most delicious cold, clear mountain spring. It was the best water I ever tasted -- I can still remember the experience. There may yet be places like that in the world, or even in this country, but certainly not in your local neighborhood or mine.

And yet water remains a critical element for survival. More than ever before we find ourselves asking, where did it come from, what’s in it, and is it safe to drink? Tap or bottled? Filtered or spring water? Flavored or unflavored? Sweetened or unsweetened? Sparkling or flat? Purified or distilled? The choices seem endless.

So let's talk about water. With the hot days of summer, and the warnings to drink plenty of water, we're left to wonder...what does that mean, exactly? Water makes up about 70% of the human body (optimally), and we all know the dangers of dehydration. Water helps regulate the body's internal temperature and keeps our cells functioning properly. We need to drink enough water to stay hydrated...but, how much is "enough?"

Experts have been telling us for as long as we can remember, that we should be drinking at least eight 8-ounce glasses a day. That's 64 ounces. Two quarts! I don't know about you, but I've never drunk that much water in a given day in my entire life. And yet I just had my body fluids checked and was found to be in the normal hydration range. So, who came up with this eight glasses a day rule?

In a June article by my favorite health guru, Dr. Mercola, he discusses this very topic.  It seems there are absolutely no scientific studies to be found that support this seemingly arbitrary water requirement. In his article, he sites a commentary by Dr. Margaret McCartney, a general practitioner from Scotland writing for the British Medical Journal who suggested that the 8 glasses a day "nonsense" was being spread by bottled water companies in order to "churn up more business."  That wouldn't surprise me.  But the fact is, the bulk of the health/medical community is telling us the same thing -- how do THEY profit from such advice?

Anyway, I suppose we can all relax about the 8-glasses a day rule and fall back on the old fashioned way of discovering how much water we should drink-- you know, the method our ancestors relied on:  Thirst.  Your body will tell you when you need water, and like any self-regulating system, it may need more on some days and less on others, depending on the existing environmental factors.  If you're running on a hot day (some fools actually DO such a thing), you're probably going to need a heck of a lot more than 64 ounces!

Have you seen the water isle at the grocery store lately?  Americans have been convinced en masse that drinking water must be bottled.  Boy, are we gullible!  On the other hand, with problems like chlorine and fluoride in municiple water systems, and sometimes just really unpleasant flavor, we run to the supermarket and bring home a case of bottled water just to be safe.

You can find a raft of blogs and commentaries listing all the reasons not to buy bottled water, but I will focus on just two:  cost, and toxins.

Using the 64-ounce rule, just for argument's sake, bottled water will cost about $500 per year per person (assuming $6 for a case of 24 12-oz. bottles, $1.33/day per person).  On the other hand, a good reverse osmosis water filtration system that fits under the sink runs about $250, providing the whole family with clean, filtered, bottle-quality water for an entire year.  You could replace the ENTIRE SYSTEM every year for less money than it costs to buy bottled water.  But you don't have to.  Only the filter needs to be replaced annually, and it runs about $50 (more or less).

The second reason not to buy bottled water has to do with the problem of leaching.  Most plastic bottles used by bottling companies leach a carcinogen known as BPA (bisphelol A), which is an estrogen-like chemical used in the manufacturing of plastic bottles.  It keeps them soft and pliable so they don't break. A 2010 article by Ashley Staker for Medifast Health sited a report from the US National Toxicology Program that "revealed that even low exposures to BPA produced alterations in the brains and behavior of rats, along with precancerous changes in the prostate and breast, and early puberty."  Hmmmm...sounds a lot like the common problems in today's human population.  I wonder if there's a connection.  Coincidence?  The article goes on to say that "the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has detected trace amounts of BPA in more than 90% of Americans tested."  A 2008 study from the Harvard School of Public Health confirmed that "drinking containers made with BPA release the chemical into the liquid in sufficient amounts to increase the amount of BPA excreted in [the] urine."

Lesson?  Don't drink the water... at least not from plastic bottles.  Fortunately, there are plenty of alternatives to plastic these days.  I have a nice stainless steel bottle I fill from my filtered water spigot.  It's durable and has a nice pop-top with a cover.

There is really no good reason to buy and drink bottled water on a regular basis.  Flavored waters contain artificial ingredients you should avoid anyway.  Vitamin waters not only contain fructose sweeteners, a substance that is very hard on the liver and contributes to other health problems, but the vitamins it contains are synthetic and your body will not process them in the same way as the vitamins naturally occurring in food.

Good clean water is still abundant and reasonably inexpensive.  If you can't afford a good filter, tap water filtered through an inexpensive device like a filtered water pitcher is probably still preferable over bottled water.

Here's to good health!  Drink up!

Ice cream, anyone?

Well, it's official.  Summer is here.  Can you believe those 100+ degree temperatures all across the country this week?  And, of course, with summer comes ice cream.  There was a time (in my previous life) where ice cream lived in my freezer in gallon tubs and we served it up in soup bowls.  But now that I'm much more conscious about the affects of sugar on health... no, I haven't given it up altogether.  I just buy it in pint tubs now instead of gallons, and I serve it up in custard cups instead of soup bowls.

Not only do I pay attention to serving sizes (did you know a serving is a half cup?), but I'm also more than a little concerned about the ingredients.  Have you actually paid attention to what makes up ice cream these days?

I counted 35 ingredients in the Kemps' Cookies N'Cream ice cream shown in the picture.  

The first question that comes to mind is, wouldn't it be less expensive to make if they didn't put in all those nonessential ingredients?  I mean, really, when did ice cream makers decide that guar gum (or tara gum, or locust bean gum, or any other gum) was crucial to the manufacturing of ice cream?

There are 16 ingredients in Kemps' vanilla ice cream (17 if you count mono and diglycerides separately)—you can't get more plain than vanilla:

Milk fat

Non-fat milk

Sweet cream buttermilk

High fructose corn syrup

Corn syrup

Whey

Maltodextrin

Mono and diglycerides

Natural flavor

Artificial flavor

Tapioca starch

Guar gum

Locust bean gum

Carrageenan (a thickener)

Annato color

Sucralose

Do they really need high fructose corn syrup AND sucralose?  And what about the maltodextrin?  It's a corn-based sweet additive-- so we have three kinds of sweeteners derived from corn plus an artificial sweetener.  In addition to these dubious ingredients, this tortured desert also includes trans fats in the form of mono and diglycerides.  What? You didn't know those were trans fats?  It says 0 trans fats on the label, doesn't it?  (Are we being deliberately misled?)  Finally, is it really necessary to put COLOR in vanilla ice cream.  What's wrong with the naturally occurring color of milk -- white?  Why in the world do manufacturers put all those ingredients into a product that requires only five basic ingredients—milk, cream, egg yolks, sugar, and vanilla?

Most of the brand-name ice creams are similar, I just happen to be picking on Kemps.

So (you're probably thinking), why not buy organic ice cream?  That would be better, right?  Okay, maybe.   Julie's Organic vanilla ice cream is made with only 8 ingredients, all prefaced with the word "organic" (except for the gum):  cream, skim milk, evaporated cane juice, egg yolks, vanilla extract, carob bean gum, guar gum.  Then I'm left to wonder... what does "organic" milk mean?  Is it from grass-fed cows, because it doesn't SAY milk from pastured cows?  What exactly makes it organic?  Is the label "organic" just an attempt to greenwash the food?  Who knows?

Now, what if you're allergic to milk products?  No problem, there's a whole spectrum of ice cream substitutes made from soy "milk," or almond "milk," or rice "milk," or coconut "milk," or hemp "milk."  Did I miss any? Each one is made with a laundry list of ingredients--and, yes, they all have some form of gum in them.  Since my husband is allergic to dairy, I've tried a few of them that I've purchased for him.  Each has its own distinct taste based on the main "milk" ingredient; and while they are all cold, not a one of them matches up to the lovely taste of real unadulterated ice cream made from cow's milk.  

...Unadulterated, being the key word.  And while I don't usually push a brand (and certainly don't get money or brownie points for doing so), occasionally, I just have to share my discoveries.  In my long and ardent search, I have found only one (so far) ice cream brand made the old-fashioned way, with simple essential ingredients-- Haagen-Dazs.  Haagen-Dazs brand vanilla ice cream has five—that's right, 5, not 17—ingredients.  They are:  skim milk, cream, sugar, egg yolks, and vanilla.  My favorite is the Haagen-Dazs Coffee.  It also has five ingredients:  skim milk, cream, sugar, egg yolks, and coffee.  And their strawberry ice cream, which I haven't tasted yet but plan to soon, has five ingredients:  skim milk, cream, sugar, egg yolks, and ... strawberries – not strawberry flavor. The only catch is that it's not organic, and the milk is likely not from grass-fed cows.  But on the bright side... it has no guar gum, which counts for a lot.  When it melts, it looks and feels like cream, not goo.

Well, have a very happy 4th of July!  Be safe.  Enjoy your ice cream in moderation... and watch out for the guar gum.