The Benefits of Cage Free Eggs?

The Basics

The old cliche "you are what you eat" is more than cliche when considering the nutritional value of eggs. Since the mid 1970s, studies have shown that eggs from hens accessible to a pasture environment are better for you than eggs from birds kept in cages. Free-range hens that eat a healthy, natural diet and pass on those benefits to the und user, YOU in the form of more nutritiounal eggs.

Free-range chickens must have access to the outdoors, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture regulations, whereas farmers that raise conventional poultry are confined to indoors cages. Pasture raised hens eat a diet of grass and crickets in addition to their grain diet. Conventionally raised chickens, however, are fed a strictly grain diet. However, regulations do not require that free-range hens have access to pasture and studies comparing the hens' diet to the nutritional value of their eggs compare pasture fed "free-range" hens to conventional birds. For the health benefits of free-range eggs, make sure you purchase them from pasture-fed flocks.

Vitamin A promotes the healthy development of teeth, bones, soft tissue aa well as eye tissue needed for good vision. It also acts as an antioxidant and protects cells from damage (see References 5). The "Mother Earth News" and SARE studies found that free-range eggs contained 67 percent and 40 percent more vitamin A, respectively, than conventional eggs (see References 2, pages 1 and 3).

Vitamin E also protects cells by acting as an antioxidant, in addition to promoting healthy blood and circulatory system function. Free-range eggs contain more vitamin E than their conventional counterparts. The recent survey found as much as three (3) times the vitamin E in the eggs tested and a Pennsylvania State University research found twice the vitamin E in the eggs of grass-fed hens.

The American Heart Association recommends reducing intake of both cholesterol as well as saturated fat in order to reduce your risk of heart disease and stroke. Further testing has found that eggs from pasture-fed free-range hens, on average, contained one-third of the cholesterol and one-fourth of the saturated fat as conventional eggs. A Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education study showed similar results, with pastured hens producing eggs with about 10 percent less fat and nearly 35 percent less cholesterol.