Organic Pastured-Raised Eggs vs Pasture-Raised Eggs – What’s Best?
Not all eggs are created equal! It’s important to navigate the sometimes-tricky lingo when purchasing eggs to ensure you get delicious and high-quality product you pay for – that when consumed, create a less toxic load and burden on your body.
Some Common Egg Carton Labels – in no particular order
- Certified Organic
- Pasture-raised
- Free-range / Free-roaming
- Cage-free
- Vegetarian-fed
- Natural
- Farm Fresh
- Fertile
- Omega-3 enriched
- Pasteurized (note: not the same as pastured)
- Hormone-free
- Antibiotic-free
It’s All About the Ladies
Ideally, hens should be roaming on pastures, not cramped indoors. However, there are differences between organic pasture-raised and pasture-raised eggs.
Since hens are omnivores, the ladies should be grazing during the day in the pasture-filled outdoors consuming minimally toxic grass (no spraying of herbicides or pesticides) and consuming the bugs, insects and other health promoting, nutrient-dense foods they eat. With all animals needing the extremely beneficial aspects of outdoor lifestyle – clean atmosphere, fresh air, sunlight, and less competitive and less stressful surroundings – hens are no different! An outdoor lifestyle allows their bodies to have less inflammation and function more optimally. When we consume animals, or their by-products, who are sedentary, consume unnecessary toxins and don’t get the nutrients they need, we take on their inflammatory burdens, in this case eating eggs that are less than ideal.
Pasture-Raised Eggs
Hens that lay pasture-raised eggs spend their time outside on fresh pastures – not huddled by the thousands in cage-free barns or confined to small cages. Hens love to roam about the pasture and thoroughly enjoy consuming seeds, grasses and critters – pretty much anything they can get their beaks on! The foragers that they are, pecking at wild grasses and bugs allows for more vitamins and minerals than they would consume on solely corn-based feed.
An extremely thorough nutritional comparison of pasture-raised verse conventional eggs was conducted in 2007 from Mother Earth News. The egg comparison results are quiet substantial.
According to the research, pasture-raised eggs, in comparison to conventional eggs, contain:
- 1/3 less cholesterol
- ¼ 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
Another study in 2008 followed up with Mother Earth News’ report and found pasture-raised, due to their substantial sunlight exposure in the pasture the hens enjoy, transferred to the eggs of the hens containing 4 to 6 times higher vitamin D than conventional eggs. With many Americans being vitamin D deficient, this is an easy boost to our intake of the extremely important hormone vitamin D!
Regularly rotating the hens keeps the pastures from needing to be sprayed with harmful chemicals – as the hens pasteurize the grass themselves!
Hens Supplemented with Feed
A hen who feeds on pasture only does not fully and sufficiently support her dietary needs to do the hard work of creating and laying lots of nutrient-dense eggs. Therefore, in addition to consuming foods in the pasture (the base of their daily food), it is important to supplement the hens with feed allowing the ladies to produce higher amounts of top-quality eggs.
It is the type and quality of feed we provide to the hens where things become a bit trickier.
Two Classifications of Feeds: Conventional Feed verses Organic Feed
Conventional feed uses GMO (genetically modified organisms) – such as corn and soy (a major part of feed) – which can also have pesticides added to the growing process. Hormones can be included to the feed to increase muscle and egg production, in addition to other chemicals. Routine antibiotics can also be given to conventionally fed hens.
Organic feed is free from GMO ingredients, pesticides, hormones and antibiotics.
Local Farmers You Trust
Purchasing eggs from a local farmer that you have communicated with, or even seen with your own eyes, their hens have been raised using the health promoting ways mother nature intended, it provides a great synergy of a healthier environment, humanely-raised animals and hens that produce beautiful nutrient-dense eggs.
What sets Organic Pasture-Raised Eggs apart from Pasture-raised Eggs?
In a nut “shell,” organic pasture-raised eggs provide our bodies with delicious, nutritious and high-quality eggs that minimize exposure to toxins.
