Real foods are usually seasonal—and that includes eggs. This may sound surprising, since eggs are always plentiful at the grocery store. But, in Nature, it is light that gets chickens to lay their eggs. Spring—when the days are getting longer—is the real beginning of egg season. (The factory-farmed chickens live under artificial light to trick their bodies into laying more eggs than they otherwise would.)
Eggs are a perfect food. Sally Fallon and Mary Enig have this to say in Nourishing Traditions:
“Eggs have provided mankind with high-quality protein and fat-soluble vitamins for millennia. Properly produced eggs are rich in just about every nutrient we have yet discovered, especially fat-soluble vitamins A and D. Eggs also provide sulphur-containing proteins, necessary for the integrity of cell membranes. They are an excellent a source of special long-chain fatty acids called EPA and DHA, which play a vital role in the development of the nervous system in the infant and the maintenance of mental acuity in the adult. No wonder Asians value eggs as a brain food. Egg yolk is the most concentrated source known of choline, a B vitamin found in lecithin that is necessary for keeping the cholesterol moving in the blood stream.”
The best eggs are from chickens fed flax or fish meal, or (best of all) chickens that are pasture fed so they can eat bugs and worms. (And “free-range” doesn’t necessarily mean pasture fed.) You can tell a good chicken egg because it has a dark yellow yolk that stands up in the middle of the white. The shell is usually tougher than the shell of a factory-farmed egg, because the pasture-fed chicken is getting plenty of minerals.
Enjoy eggs :)
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