Eggs

[Roger B]

IMHO, true free range eggs eaten raw are the healthiest, best food that money can buy. Supposedly, fish eggs are better, but we call them caviar and who can afford that? And if everyone got excited about buying caviar, the price would even be worse and looking at the price tag would cause heart attacks even among the rich.

Recently I have been buying free range eggs from a nice and knowledgeable fellow who delivers the eggs right into my kitchen. And while we are in the kitchen together we can chat about all kinds of things. I ask him about eggs a lot.

His eggs really are free range. He opens the barn door in the morning and lets them roam free, and at night he scoots them back into the barn and closes the door.

Consequently, I have learned some really good things about eggs:

First, if your eggs are all the same, the same size and the same color and the strength of the internal membranes are all the same, then they are not free range. If the egg producer says that they are free range, they are LYING (as in not telling the truth and knowing that they are not telling the truth.). I also get confirmation about this from my mother-in-law, who bought and sold eggs for many years. There is no way that the chickens are all going to lay eggs that are all the same size, color, and internal membrane (and any other characteristic that I may not have thought of.)

Second, if eggs are washed, then they need to be refrigerated. If they are not washed (which supposedly increases the chance of getting a disease), then they don't have to be refrigerated.

Third, unless you live in a big city, it is really easy to get free range eggs. Just look in your local Craig's List. It is worth it.
Roger Bird

[Irene de Villiers]

Can we deliver some to the politicians?
--
Irene de Villiers, B.Sc AASCA MCSSA D.I.Hom/D.Vet.Hom.
P.O. Box 4703 Spokane WA 99220.
www.angelfire.com/fl/furryboots/clickhere.html (Veterinary Homeopath.)
"Man who say it cannot be done should not interrupt one doing it."

[Maria Bohle]

Hello Roger,

I don't know where you live, but I have been raising poultry for 35 years.

Some areas cannot do real 'free range' poultry. I live near some waterways (not on my property) but close enough that we have fox, racoons, possums, occasionally skunk, and Hawks ( Cooper and Red Tailed), so we are fenced, they all have lots of room outside, but also netted. Depending on the hens, if we have a mixed variety ( I like standard breeds of Rhode Island Reds, Barred Rocks, and Heritage Leghorns) the eggs can come in from dark brown to white. If I have a whole pen of the same kind of chickens, young ones, when they start laying all of the eggs will be exactly the same color and texture, older chickens will have different colored eggs depending on the age and the number of eggs they have laid this cycle.

Washed eggs cause the protective coating the chicken produces to be washed off. If the egg is dirty it MUST be washed, free range, even the kind of free range I have inside my chicken pens will make dirty eggs in wet weather, the dampness compromises the normal egg coating, and allows the bacteria to get inside the egg, and yes, the egg will go bad where the dirt is.

We do not wash eggs if we do not have to, but as I said on rainy days we usually don not have much choice.
Almost all commercial enterprises, non organic, routinely wash eggs, these eggs are most certainly subject to bacterial invasions.

And finally, egg whites are not good for you raw. They do interfere with the absorption of one of the nutrients in our body. Can't recall which one, maybe Irene remembers.

With urban living, we cannot always control what is wandering arouind out there after our birds, we lost almost 4 dozen birds this year to a very wiley fox.

Warmly, Maria

[Shannon Nelson]

Hi Maria,

I think you are thinking of a substance in egg whites which is called avidin, and which -- I read -- interferes somehow with (the B vitamin) biotin. I *thiink* maybe I read that this only happens in some people, or maybe it's only an issue with some people. But in any case, my personal experience -- for most people it is not a big deal. One or two raw eggs (either per day or occasionally) is sort of a folk remedy for general strength and wellbeing, and recovery from illness.

But I only found this out after my own rather lifesaving discovery that for me, at that time (about 40 years back), the difference between being able to eat or being unable to eat, turned on six raw eggs per day. When I ate those (smoothies mostly), then the rest of my diet could be normal (and it was a pretty good normal); but without them I couldn't digest anything.

After a year, following taste and feel, I started to taper back, and have since then averaged about two per day -- sometimes none for a while, and sometimes more, if especially stressed or just particularly wanting them. (I love egg-and-fruit-and-veggie smoothies.)

My two kids were also were raised on long periods of two-per-day raw egg smoothies, no sign of anything but benefit to any of us.

Oh, and my now-19-year-old son is an avid bodybuilder, and a couple of years ago decided to add (gag) a *dozen* raw eggs per day to his routine. His regimen is variable, but he has done the dozen-a-day thing for sometimes months at a time, with again, no sign of anything but benefit.

I do wish I understood better the issue about avidin and biotin! Interested in more information if anyone has it.

Best,
Shannon

[Ginny Wilken]

...said Maria. Avidin is a protein present in egg whites which binds to biotin, also present. Heat inhibits this action. However, there is many times more biotin in the yolk of the egg than is inactivated by the avidin, so nutritionally there is no huge downside. Also note that there is nothing about this which is "not good for you". Eggs have been a preferred food for countless species for eons. I imagine dinosaur eggs were lovely, too.

ginny

--

Ginny Wilken

gwilken@fastmail.fm

[Shannon Nelson]

Ah Ginny, that makes sense! So the issue is that eating egg whites *without* the yolk could present a problem or someone who is already in a marginal biotin status. I've always thought that eating them without the yolks is a travesty anyway -- that's where all the best stuff is, including the taste.

That would be similar to the cholesterol situation, where (in addition to the fact that cholesterol is NOT "bad for you", and if we don't eat it, the body then just has to make it) the egg also contains more-than-enough lecithin to emulsify the cholesterol that comes with it, so a diet with lots of eggs is actually *normalizing* to cholesterol levels.

Shannon

[Maria Bohle]

Hi Ginny,

Have a question here, due to erroneous publicity some people in my area throw out the egg yolk (horrors!!) and will only eat the white of the egg.

I can see where the yolks could offset the raw egg whites, but would you consider it safe just eating the raw whites?
I refuse to sell my eggs to people who would throw the best half of it out.
warmly, Maria

[Gisela Ahrendt]

LOL - Maria you are so right - the yolk has all the Lecithin we need for good Brain activity - they probably trow out the yolk because their brain does not work well LOL - you are right the whites have NO benefits for our bodies.
Gisela
________________________________

To: minutus@yahoogroups.com
From: minutus@yahoogroups.com
Date: Mon, 27 Oct 2014 17:45:35 -0400
Subject: Re: [Minutus] Eggs
Hi Ginny,

Have a question here, due to erroneous publicity some people in my area throw out the egg yolk (horrors!!) and will only eat the white of the egg.

I can see where the yolks could offset the raw egg whites, but would you consider it safe just eating the raw whites?
I refuse to sell my eggs to people who would throw the best half of it out.
warmly, Maria

[Roger Barr]

I experienced the biotin deficiency produced by eating something like half a dozen raw eggs per day for a while. It weakened my ability to swallow. I stopped and the ability returned. I dont remember if I supplemented or not.

Roger

[Tanya Marquette]

Good for you Maria!

t