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It is a good idea to keep eggs at home, organic eggs if possible. It is one of the most versatile elements of the kitchen, excellent for desserts but also for tasty ones. They open the appetizers well and enhance the first ones, satisfying everyone, from omnivores to vegetarians. The eggs are a joker. essential to solve with a little fantasy 'any unforeseen situation.
When we go to the supermarket, in front of the shelf where the eggs are stored, we notice a corner where the so-called "biological eggs" are placed. They are special eggs because they come from organic farming and, therefore, are also more expensive. But is buying organic eggs just an ethical option that helps the environment and makes a better life for animals or are there benefits even at the nutritional level?
Ecological eggs: what are they?
The first thing to do is to "update" what are biological eggs, if someone has forgotten the difference with normal eggs.
Organic eggs are derived from chickens in organic farming, which means that the chickens must have a certain space each in which they can scratch (it's their natural behavior, that of digging and eating what they find in the soil) to the air free.
Furthermore, since they do not live alone on earth, the food that must necessarily be supplied is food from organic agriculture, that is, it is not cultivated with the help of chemical fertilizers and pesticides.
Eggs are the reproductive product of chickens. In each egg there is a small world, even if the egg is not fertilized and a chick will never be born: inside we have the yolk, which basically consists of fat, and which constitutes the reserve material that would go (or go) to compose the chick body; then we have the albumin, a liquid that surrounds it and that will have a protective function, besides forming the blood vessels; And then there is the shell, which protects.
These components are placed by the hen in this order, to form the egg.
But where do the components that end here come from? Of the blood. The chicken, in fact, eats and absorbs the nutrients, which will be discharged from the intestine into the blood that, through the ovary and uterus, will leave there the necessary nutrients for egg formation. If, for example, a chicken does not eat calcium, it would make an egg without a shell.
Some distinctive properties of organic eggs.
From some American researches that have analyzed biological eggs, several interesting parameters have been discovered:
- Organic eggs have more vitamin E and vitamin A than normal eggs. With reason, by eating chickens, herbs and vegetables "at random" that may contain more vitamins, there will be more vitamins in the egg.
- Organic eggs have more omega-3 fatty acids than normal eggs: omega-3s are usually produced by microscopic microorganisms and are part of the chain of life: a small organism, which is then ingested by a larger organism and then eaten by an earthworm. which in turn is eaten by the hen. The more omega-3 the chicken absorbs, the more it will end up in the eggs.
- Organic eggs are richer in beta carotene: carotene, a precursor of vitamin A, is a very common pigment in plants, especially in orange (it is he who gives it his color). Eat peels of orange, tangerine, carrots, the hens absorb them and put them in the eggs (whose yolk is orange, not yellow).
- Organic eggs have less cholesterol: chickens move more and consume the cholesterol they produce (like us when we play sports). This means that they will have less in the blood and, consequently, will go less in the eggs.
In summary, we have seen how it is true that organic eggs are more expensive in the supermarket, but also how they are better for our health because they provide small but important nutrients to our body: will you buy the same eggs at the supermarket next time? Now let's learn together to recognize them.
How to recognize organic eggs
Often denigrated as carriers of cholesterol. , in fact, they have a very high percentage of proteins and, if they are used with criteria and options among those bio, they are good for the muscles and bones. The question then is: how to recognize the true organic and healthy eggs?
The simplest answer would be that of the label, but it is not always easy to navigate between strange and often misleading words (fresh, fresh, extra fresh ...).
To better understand how to recognize the true organic eggs, we asked Nadia Taglialatela, food and wine consultant and food blogger, who together with her partner, Loretta Cavallaro, manages the kitchen and the courses associated with the Mind. , a small Roman restaurant where supreme vigilance is celebrated. The philosophy of the food is: good food, produced respecting the environment and all living beings.
Nadia explains that the only real way to understand what kind of eggs we are buying is to read the alphanumeric code that is printed on the shell; It is he who gives us all the possible information, from the type of reproduction to the municipality in which it is produced. Unfortunately, it is rarely reported in the box as well.
Let's not stop in this "inconvenience" and pay attention especially to the first printed issue because it tells us if the chickens from which the eggs come are raised with respect and care.
How to learn to read the alphanumeric code in eggs.
Here is a small glossary:
- The '0' indicates that the egg is organic, produced in non-intensive breeding, with chickens fed with organic products and sufficient space.
- The number '1' indicates that the hens are raised outdoors.
- The '2' indicates that the hens are raised in the ground, in small spaces, given the large number of birds, which also implies the constant use of antibiotics due to the increase in infections that many animals can develop together.
- While the '3' tells us that the reproduction took place exclusively in cages, with animals treated to the extreme, that lay many eggs due to the food they receive, with no possibility of movement or sufficient sunlight. Under these conditions, animals also tend to develop arthritis that induces considerable suffering.
