Seeds and eggs have one thing in common: they are nature’s most perfect blends of growth food. How come? Well, both have to look after themselves for all their needs.

The seed must have everything it needs to survive till it can send its roots into the soil and its first leaves into the sunlight.

The egg (once fertilized) must be able to raise a whole new bird from only the nutrients enclosed within its shell. Hence nature’s complete self-contained growth package.

The egg we all know has two parts: the albumen and the yolk.

The albumen, the white of the egg, is rich in protein and riboflavin.

The yolk, the yellow ball supported by the albumen, is rich in phosphorous, iron, zinc, vitamin A, B6 and B12, folic acid, thiamine and naturally occurring vitamin D. Less than a third of its fat is saturated and there is no trans fat. If the chickens are fed flax seed in their meal, the egg is rich in omega-3 fatty acids as well.

In fact, an egg would constitute a complete meal, except that it has zero carbs and zero vitamin C. Eggs are best in fact if you need a meal without carbs.

The problem is we have a way of ruining even the most perfect of nature’s designed products.

The perfect egg is a product of a bird that is happiest when it is scratching for its food in the soil. Its tastiest morsels are grubs, insects, earthworms. It also eats grit (tiny stones). The hen burns up almost half the energy it eats on its tireless activity looking for food.

So what does industrial chicken farming do? Just the reverse. To increase egg production, birds are kept prisoners throughout their lives in small cruel prison-like cages (called batteries) and fed a monotonous unchanging diet made from fish meal and grain, often laced with antibiotics. This knocks down the nutritional quality of the egg.

First, due to the lack of exercise, the fat component increases and the fatty acid composition in the yoke changes from healthy to unhealthy. The fish meal gives the eggs a fishy odour. Large scale egg handling invites salmonella contamination. Eating such eggs every day of the week is bad health theory.

The best eggs come from country chickens and you can get them if you visit any village haat in your area. These eggs are sourced to birds that are not kept in cages, but allowed to walk around free and scratch. We call these chickens “free range”. Urban folk, however, have to go in for “organic” or “herbal” eggs. Organic eggs come from farms that must feed their birds only organically grown grain, do not inject their birds with antibiotics or growth hormones, and do not flood their chicken houses with artificial lighting to increase day light hours so that the birds lay oftener (and get to sleep less).

Herbal eggs are from farms that feed their chickens herbal supplements in addition to regular grain, so that the “fishy” smell is completely eliminated.

It is not possible outwardly to distinguish factory chicken eggs from organic or herbal eggs. So ask for the source when buying your eggs. The package will disclose if it comes from an organic farm.

But the most important lesson is this: if you cannot source organic eggs in your area, reduce your egg intake. In that case, to once or twice a week at most – that way you can still have them without loading yourself with the dubious stuff that comes latched on to them from industrial-scale chicken farms.

Herbal, organic eggs are available at Easy Day stores. They come from:

M/s Kansal & Kansal Agro Farm

27, Virat Nagar, Panipat, Haryana, IN: 132103

Mobile : +91-9812533722

E-mail : kansalagro@gmail.com

Organic India is now expanding into organic dairy and chicken. Hopefully they will soon have organic eggs for sale as well.

Organic India,

Plot No. 266, Faizabad Road,
Kamta, Post Chinhat
Lucknow-227105
Tel: +91-(0)522-2701579, 099562 96685
Fax: +91-(0)522-2701395
Email: info@organicindia.com

(Published in Prevention Magazine, May 2010)