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

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

I bought eggs from a farm (on Facebook) that were supposed to be fresh, organic, and from free-range hens. My disappointment was great, as their quality and freshness were very low, and I realised that I had been misled.

This experience prompted me to analyse what we need to know about eggs: their nutritional properties, how to select them correctly, how to cook and handle them safely, how to distinguish the truth from misleading practices by producers, and how to assess their quality.

The myth that egg consumption raises cholesterol levels

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

The study

I explain in detail about Cholesterol here.

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

Brain & Nervous System

“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

Lecithin & Health

“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.

Eggs are among the most nutritious foods on the planet. One large boiled egg contains:

• Vitamin A

• Vitamin E

• Folic acid

• Lutein - Zeaxanthin: Antioxidants essential for eye health.

• Pantothenic acid (Vitamin B5)

• Pyridoxine (Vitamin B6)

• Vitamin B12(*Vitamin B12 is also produced in our gut by its microbiome – the beneficial/probiotic bacteria)

• Riboflavin (Vitamin B2)

• Vitamin K

• Phosphorus, Selenium, Iron, Zinc, Iodine, Calcium

• Vitamin D

  *Subscribe to be informed as soon as I post the specific article on Vitamin D and the risks associated with supplements.

• Omega-3 fatty acids

I explain in detail about Omega-3 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.

Read it here

Protein

Eggs contain all the essential amino-acids that our bodies need to synthesize protein where it's needed.

*I'll write it again, protein is not meat! Meat is animal Fibre.

Eggs as support for the Hormonal System

Although I haven't been consuming animal-based foods for over two decades, as I was never able to digest them properly, and dairy products cause skin problems and inflammation, after suffering relentlessly from PMS (premenstrual syndrome – discomfort before the period) years ago, I adopted a Therapeutic Nutrition in which I included eggs (they support oestrogenic activity). At that point, my condition was cured, and now I experience perimenopause without symptoms!

I explain in detail about Premenstrual Syndrome here.

I explain in detail about Menopause here.

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

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

How we can evaluate the yolk

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.

The shell as a quality criteria.

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!!

Infection or Mold

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

Hard shell

If the shell is hard 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.

Hen's Health

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

Shell's Colour

The colour of the shell varies greatly, and in no way affects the quality of the egg.

Check out some beautiful colours here :)

How to Recognise the Fresh Eggs

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.

The yolk of a fresh egg retains a round shape

and rises high when we break it on a surface. As the days go by, the yolk of an older egg loses its height, as the structure of the protein starts to degrade.

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

Runny Egg-white

As the egg ages, the albumen becomes thinner and runnier, and when we break the egg in a Vessel, 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

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.

The egg in water test.

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 !!

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 couldn't keep the eggs I told you. They smelled like fish…! Raw, and not cracked…

Handling, storage, preservation, and cooking of eggs.

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.

Eggs should not be washed!

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

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.

Where to crack the eggs

We should crack our eggs on a surface different from the vessel we are going to use. 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.

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.

Keep the container they were in

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.

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

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 oxidation of the beneficial (healthy) fats.

I explain here about the beneficial and toxic fats, in detail, with a guide that you can download.

Cooking eggs at low heat, and for only a few minutes

contributes to preserving nutrients such as vitamin A, vitamin D, and antioxidants.

We can add some vinegar or 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.

Always use stable oils to fry eggs.

To me, the best one is extra virgin olive oil, which also has a high smoking point.

I explain here

*Always prefer boiling over frying.

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

Boiled eggs in the refrigerator

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.

Boiled eggs in the Freezer

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.

Egg Mayonnaise

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 2-3’. Bacteria are not able to survive in a highly acidic environment. Then you can add the rest of your ingredients and process as usual.

Here, I have an exceptional Detox Recipe

Buying eggs directly from producers & the eggs in supermarkets

The "commercial eggs," which usually come from mass production, are from hens that are both distressed in cages, and primarily fed genetically modified maize, which (besides being genetically modified) also fails to provide the beneficial nutrients in the eggs.

It is better to buy directly from producers whom we have verified, both for health reasons and for economic ones.

I explain in detail here.

The deceptions of egg producers and what we can do.

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 a producer 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, 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. Certifications

If you need to buy organic, pasture-fed, farm fresh eggs, ALWAYS ask for certifications!! 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.Proof of the Chickens' Food

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.The water Test Before Buying

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.Visit the Farm

If possible, we can 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. When we find the producers who meet our criteria, we won’t have to think about all that again.

5.Omega-3 & Vitamin D Additives

Be aware that the Ω3 and vitamin D rich eggs, are not natural. While pasture-fed eggs are very rich in vitamin D (from the sun), Ω3, and vitamin E, the 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 It here

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

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. At the same time, its acidity protects our skin from highly alkaline cleaning agents.

*The natural acidity of the skin is the number one shield of our Immune System against external bacteria, etc.

2. To easily peel boiled eggs

Deep them in ice cold water, immediately after boiling them. It will also stop the cooking process and the extra hardening.

That’s all for today. I hope I have been of help, and I encourage you to monitor your health with the basic medical tests, stay informed, and make wise choices.

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Thank you for the visit, your trust, and the wonderful messages! They give me strength to continue defending our Health, against the industry that profits from our illness…!

Holistic Therapy

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Loads of love,

Thomais de Fois

Internationally Accredited Holistic Therapist,

Member of IPHM

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