I grew up eating eggs from white shells; I didn't know they could be any other color.
Our eggs came from the grocery store in styrofoam packaging, and the eggs in the refrigerators at all my friends' houses were exactly the same. Life in the 1970s and 1980s meant no farmer's markets, no trips to farms and no concept of food variety.
When I began buying my eggs at the farmer's market, things changed. The eggs were brown and usually in paperboard cartons or Styrofoam cartons that were clearly being reused.
I know I'm not the only one who had that experience with eggs, so it's no wonder that many people assume brown eggs are more nutritious. If we're working off the assumption that all white eggs at the grocery store come from big factory farms and that all brown eggs come from local farmers who raise freerange chickens... sure. Brown is better.
But is that true?
Eggshell color is determined by the breed of the hen, not by the conditions in which the chicken is raised. Generally speaking, you can tell whether eggs will be white by looking at a hen's earlobes, the colored skin on the side of the head. Hens with white earlobes generally lay white eggs. Hens with brown or reddish earlobes generally lay eggs that are brown, or sometimes light green, blue or a speckled creamy color, according to Michigan State University Extension.
No one breed of hen, however, is proven to lay a more nutritious egg than another, despite the color of the eggshell. Not all eggs are created equal because not all hens are raised the same way.
A test done by Mother Earth News on eggs taken from 14 flocks around the country whose hens were allowed frequent access to fresh pasture, land covered with grass, found that true freerange eggs were nutritionally superior to eggs sold in grocery stores.
“True” freerange means just that eggs from the grocery store that are marketed as free range do not necessarily come from hens that have spent their days wandering the barnyard, getting fresh air and eating a natural diet. When “Freerange” is on an egg carton, it means that the chickens can move around their building and have access to the outdoors “during their production cycle”.
But access doesn't guarantee time outside. There's no regulation that says getting to that door has to be easy, how big the outdoor area must be, or that a chicken ever has to get outside. A chicken in a crowded henhouse may never get to the door, and if it manages to go through it, it may find there's no room for it in the small area outside.
That's why it's so hard to determine if freerange eggs at the store come from truly freerange chickens. At a farm or farmers' market, you can ask about the conditions that the hens' are raised in before you buy.
Another factor in the nutrition of an egg is the hens' diet. Although chickens are not vegetarians by nature—bugs and worms are part of their natural diets—Consumer Reports tested grocery store eggs and found that “hens fed vegetarian diets tended to have more of certain vitamins and omega3s than those from hens fed a conventional diet”.
So when you're choosing eggs and aiming for nutrition, don't judge an egg by its shell color. White eggs can be just as nutritious as brown eggs. Hens that are kept in conditions that are natural to them—with access to the outdoors, sunlight and exercise—and fed a good diet are what you're looking for. To find them, you'll need to ask some questions and, perhaps, pay a little more, because raising hens in pastures costs more than raising them at factory farming.
12. When the author first saw eggs at a farmers' market, ________.
A.they were fresher than those in grocery stores | B.they had an unusual colour |
C.they cost less than those he had bought before | D.they were variously packed |
13. It is implied in the passage that nowadays ________.
A.true freerange chickens can no longer be found anywhere |
B.socalled freerange hens remain in henhouses all day long |
C.the word “freerange” is only used as a means of cheating |
D.the definition of “freerange” can sometimes be ambiguous |
14. We can learn from the passage that ________.
A.nutritional value of eggs depends on nothing but what hens eat |
B.a diet mixed with plants and worms makes eggs more nutritious |
C.farmers should feed hens scientifically to get highquality eggs |
D.the breed of hens should be improved for the purpose of nutrition |
15. To get eggs richer in nutrition, you need to ________.
A.analyse their nutritional composition | B.investigate how the hens are raised |
C.assure yourself of the eggs cost price | D.discover where the eggs come from |