Everything you need to know about EGGS & how the producers deceive us !!!

Διάβασε στα Ελληνικά

Eggs are one of the most nutritious foods on earth, and they’re so versatile, that we use them daily in so many recipes, and most importantly, we feed babies with them!

Recently, I purchased some eggs from a farm that were supposed to be fresh, organic, coming from free, pasture-fed hens. I was extremely disappointed by their quality, freshness, and the fact that I’d been lied to, so I decided to write this article with my research on everything we need to know about eggs, their nutritional properties, how to cook & preserve them properly, and how to be able to evaluate their quality.

I’ll start with the myth that eating eggs will raise our “bad” cholesterol levels.

Science has already proven the exact opposite. The fact is that eggs raise HDL (“good” cholesterol) levels, which protects our cardiovascular system.

Read it here

Secondly, eggs are among the few foods that contain both lecithin and choline.

Lecithin and choline are essential phospholipids found in our bodies, brain, blood, and nerves. They are used in the metabolic process, and they form part of the membrane that serves as a protective shield for our cells.

Read it here

“Our brain and nervous system needs lecithin to regulate memory, mood, muscle control, and other functions. We also need choline to form the membranes that surround your body’s cells. We can make a small amount of choline in our liver, but most of the choline in our body comes from the food we eat.”

Read it here

“Egg yolk lecithin has physiological activities as an antioxidant, antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, and neurologic, cardiovascular, and cerebrovascular protectant.”

Read it here

Eggs belong to the most nutritious foods on the planet, containing almost every nutrient we need.

“A single large boiled egg contains:

• Vitamin A: 8% of the DV (daily value)

• Folate: 6% of the DV

• Pantothenic acid (vitamin B5): 14% of the DV

• Vitamin B12: 23% of the DV

• Riboflavin (vitamin B2): 20% of the DV

• Phosphorus: 7% of the DV

• Selenium: 28% of the DV

• Vitamin D: 11% OF THE DV

• Eggs also contain decent amounts of vitamin D, vitamin E, vitamin B6, calcium and zinc

This comes with 78 calories, 6 grams of protein and 5 grams of fat.

Eggs also contain various trace nutrients that are important for health.”

Read it here

Eggs are a great source of collagen, a vital protein for our tissues, skin, bones, muscles, and tendons, decreases pain and stiffness, and improves digestion. Collagen is found in the egg yolk and membrane.

Besides, eggs contain all the essential amino-acids that our bodies need to create protein.

Read it here

Now let’s examine what the egg yolk can tell us about the egg’s nutritional value, its freshness, and the hen’s health!

The most important factor in determining the egg's nutritional value is its yolk's colour! Yes, it matters a lot!!

An egg with a golden-orange, or deep orange yolk can only come from a healthy hen, fed with the needed variety of foods, such as grass, seeds, grains, insects, worms, soil, and stones. The orange colour is the result of a diet rich in carotenoids and all the necessary nutrients the hen needs to produce nutrient-rich eggs.

Carotenoids in the human body act as antioxidants, and are essential for our health.

Read it here

A light yellow, pale yolk shows as either that the hen’s diet is insufficient or that the hen is unhealthy.

…Or the hens are fed with just unhealthy, GMO corn…!

“In order for a yolk to present an attractive golden colour, carotenoids have to:

• Be ingested in sufficient quantities

• Absorbed (via a healthy gut)

• Not be used as antioxidants (low immunological challenges)

• Not be used as vitamin precursor (good vitamin status).”

Read it here

We can use the “DSM YolkFan™” to evaluate the quality of our egg yolk.

You can print it and use it in your kitchen, preferably with enough light, or, even better, daylight.

One more factor to determine if the hen’s health and diet are good and sufficient to produce nutritious eggs is the egg shell.

The eggshell is composed mainly of calcium carbonate, metabolised phosphorus, and proteins. When the hen is pasture-fed, it has access to calcium that she takes from the stones she digests, phosphorus from the plants – seeds - grains, and protein from the insects, worms, and seeds. And, since the eggshell protects the egg from bacteria, it’s important to be thick, strong, non-porous, and, of course, not broken!!

Slimy shells indicate that they are contaminated with bacteria, while a powdery substance on the shell is usually mould.

If the shell is strong enough, the egg can stay fresh for longer. So always pay attention to the eggshells. If they are thin and fragile, we know that they didn’t sell us eggs from pasture-raised hens.

And as for the hens’ wellbeing, if they don’t have access to calcium sources, such as stones, they will use calcium from their own bones to form the egg shell, something that leads to bone deformation-damage.

Read more here

The colour of the shell varies greatly, and in no way affects the quality of the egg. Check out some beautiful colours here :)

Now, we all know that we need our eggs to be fresh, in order to be tasty and safe to consume. Let’s see how we can tell if an egg is fresh or aged.

1. The yolk of a fresh egg retains a round shape and rises high when we break it into a skillet or plate. As the days go by, the yolk of an older egg loses its height, as the structure of the protein starts to degrade.

2. The fresh eggs have a thick, jelly-like albumen (egg white).

As the egg ages, the albumen becomes thinner and runnier, and when we break the egg in a plate-pan, the albumen spreads, and looks watery, like the one in the photo bellow.

That’s why when we make poached eggs, we lose half of them in the water :P

3. A fresh egg is completely full. As the egg ages and the proteins degrade, its volume decreases, and air flows in through the shell, creating air pockets. So when we have a boiled egg like the one I have in the photos, we understand that it’s nothing but fresh..!! See the gap.

So, the air pockets are what will help us test an egg’s freshness (before cooking it) by dipping it in a transparent glass/bowl of water. If the egg is fresh, it will completely sink to the bottom. If it’s aged, the air pocket will make it flow. The older the egg is, the higher it will flow into the water.

If the egg floats on the surface of the water, it’s dangerous, discard it !!

4. Our smell is a great detector of a spoiled egg!! Trust your nose, and every time you are not sure about your eggs’ freshness, smell them after cracking them. A spoiled egg will have a strong odour, even if it’s raw or cooked. In that case, make sure to discard it, and thoroughly wash your hands, and the plate or pan that came into contact with it! A smelly egg is not only aged, but also dangerous!!

I can’t hold it…the eggs I told you I bought…smelled like fish…!! Raw, and not cracked… Disgusting..!

Now that we know well enough how to distinguish fresh eggs from aged, we can move to some tips about handling, storing, and preserving them safely, cooking them conveniently and in more healthy ways.

1. Eggs should not be washed!!!

When eggs are laid, they are covered in a film that protects them from bacteria entering through the shell.

Washing eggs removes this protective coating, and our eggs might end up contaminated with bacteria, and/or salmonella, and they’ll lose their freshness sooner.

Washing our eggs can also spread bacteria around.

American industry is forced by law to sell washed eggs, while in EU we have the exact opposite.

2. We should crack our eggs on a surface different from the container we are going to use (bowl, pan, et.c.), discard the shell immediately, and wash our hands before touching anything else to avoid any bacteria entering our food.

Then, we must disinfect the surface we cracked our egg on, as well.

3. Storing our unwashed eggs in the refrigerator keeps them fresh for longer. I encourage you to do that.

They will be safe to consume within 3 to 5 weeks.

4. For the same reasons (bacteria), we’d rather refrigerate our eggs in the same carton-packaging we bought them, instead of handling them, and moving them to our refrigerator’s rack.

5. Cooking eggs Instead of eating them raw is important. Ιt is not only safer, as the heat sterilises them, but also as their large protein compounds break down, they become more digestible, our bodies can absorb the proteins easily, and biotin (vitamin B7, or vitamin H) is separated from the protein avidin in the egg white, which makes it bioavailable.

Read it here

6. Cooking our eggs at low heat instead of high is also essential. Prefer to cook your eggs at low heat in order to avoid the cholesterol’s oxidation.

7. Cooking eggs at low heat, and for only a few minutes, contributes to preserving nutrients such as vitamin A, vitamin D, and antioxidants.

8. We can add some acid (vinegar, lemon) to our boiling water in order to eliminate any unpleasant eggy smell. And, of course, I’m not referring to the smell spoiled eggs have, but the natural, fresh egg odour.

9. Always use stable oils to fry eggs. To me, the best one is extra virgin olive oil, which also has a high smoking point.

10. Over boiling an egg might form a greenish ring around its yolk. This does not indicate spoilage, or contamination. It happens in a chemical reaction called denaturation, in which sulphur from the albumin combines with the yolk’s iron. But remember that it’s always better not to overcook them.

Read it here

11. We can store boiled eggs in the fridge for a maximum of 7 days, if they are fresh. If your boiled eggs that you refrigerated develop any odd smell, or become slimy (inside, and/or out), discard them immediately, they’re spoiled and dangerous.

12. We can safely store boiled eggs in the freezer for up to a few months, but it’s not suggested, as their yolk will become rubbery, the albumin will toughen, and they’ll lose their taste.

13. When making mayonnaise using the required raw egg, to make sure it is safe to eat, start by sterilising it, adding only the acids in the beginning (vinegar & lemon). Beat them together for a minute, and let the mixture sit for 10-15’. Bacteria are not able to survive in a highly acidic environment. Then you can add the rest of your ingredients and process as usual.

(stay tuned for delicious recipe).

Now. Having everything about eggs themselves covered, let’s move on to the egg producers, and what we can do to determine whether they trick us regarding the quality of the eggs they sell us.

I learned the hard way from my mistake of trusting some producers from a facebook group when the eggs they brought me were a disaster!! Runny albumin, flat & pale yellow yolks, had a fish odour even before cracking them, and the sell was so porous, thin and fragile, and they had a huge air pocket, as I showed you above…ridiculous!! When I boiled them, they became slimy in 2 days in the fridge!! I threw them away, and notified my friends, to whom I gave a couple of cartons, to do the same.

1. If you need to buy organic, pasture-fed, farm fresh eggs, ALWAYS ask for certification!!! The farm must be certified organic, no hormones and antibiotics should be used, and the hens must be fed with organic grains - seeds, and/or be free fed in pasture. If the farm and the foods are not certified, be extra cautious!!

2. In order to achieve the desired orange yolk colour, some producers feed the hens considerable amounts of red paprika. This is not harmful, but we know that they trick us, as the eggs will not have the same nutritional quality as pasture-fed. Ask for videos!! Ask them to show you that the hens are out in nature, with them, ask for photos from different days….You have the right to do that.

The producer who tricked me only posts photos about their farm’s trees, fruits, and themselves posing with their goods, but they never posted photos or videos with their chicken around. They used 2 photos from the internet of some chickens eating grass. I should have guessed that it was misleading, and that the chickens are kept in enclosures..! Now we know.

3. As for the eggs’ freshness, you have every right to perform the floating test before buying them! If they refuse…be suspicious!! From now on, I’ll do it every time I buy from a farm, even if I go there, or have them delivered at home!

Seriously, after this experience, I’m not sure if I can even trust the dates on the eggshells…! They could be marking them at the last minute before delivery…

4. If possible, we can always visit the farm, and inspect the chickens’ living condition and how they are fed. Being polite, we have every right to ask questions about everything. And, trust me, when we find the producers who meet our needs, we won’t have to think about all that again.

5. Be aware that the Ω3 and vitamin D rich eggs, are not natural. While pasture-fed eggs are very rich in vitamin D, and Ω3 acids, vitamin E, and less cholesterol, the vitamin D-Ω3 enriched eggs are usually fortified by supplementing the hens’ diets with synthetic vitamins, and they don’t even reach the vitamin content of a naturally fed egg.

Hens are also fed with fish oils, and fishmeal, from the fish production waste!! Fishmeal makes chickens grow faster, reach reproductive maturity faster, and produce more eggs… but, they are not made to eat fish!! Read I here

That was possibly the reason why the eggs I bought had that disgusting fishy odour..!

And 2 extra tips!!

1. Add 50% white vinegar to your liquid dish soap!! Not only it removes easily every odour from utensils, plates, and pan, it also sterilises them, and removes all the salts from the hard tap-water.

2. To easily peel your boiled egg, deep them in cold water, immediately after boiling them. It will also stop the cooking process.

While I haven’t been consuming foods that come from animals for about 2 decades, as I have never been able to digest them properly, and dairy products cause me skin issues, after PMS (Premenstrual Syndrome) hit me severely the last few years, I had to boost my oestrogen intake, and eggs have helped me a lot.

Ladies who experience the same condition will understand how difficult some days are, monthly.

Subscribe, to be notified when I write about this topic, giving some natural solutions to help ourselves, and our beloved ones.

With this article, I hope I will help you make the best choices for you and your family!

In case you need more directions, or have any questions, feel free to contact me directly, or leave your comment bellow. I'm always happy to help!!

*my site is used and directed only by me. No one has access to your email, and no one collects visitor information from me. These are my principles!

Of course, Facebook does not allow us to post directly from my site (they care a lot about our health – not), but you can share my article with this link - PDF file, or my YouTube Spot

• Now, I consider it important to read my research about all the toxic cookware they sell us, and all these “good people” I mentioned before, who care about health, allow in the markets, instead of banning them!!!

Just to know better what to throw away.

• One more article I’d like you to read, if you haven’t yet, to protect your health, is my research about the freaking bugs they put in our foods, how to detect and avoid them!! The article for which facebook attacked me!!!

• You’ll also find healthy recipes on my blog, so take a look around, and subscribe for more.

And remember, to always cook with love! Everything is charged by our energy...and love is the best therapy...!

Thank you all for your support, and your most amazing encouraging messages!!!!

I’m so touched!!

Loads of love,

Thomais de Fois

Biography

One song of mine, dedicated to you for inspiration :)

You may share this article by sharing the original URL, not part of the article, due to copyrights.

All rights reserved © Thomais de Fois 2023