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THE EGG AND YOU

Based on its ratio of amino acids, the egg is the most perfect natural protein food for human nutrition according to scientific standards. The blend of proteins in the egg most closely matches the ideal pattern required by the body's cells. Thus, the egg is a complete protein and sets the world standard for quality protein called Net Protein Utilization (NPU) used to measure the bio-availability of protein in all foods.

The egg is assigned a NPU of 100 and scientists and nutritionists can then compare the biological value of other foods to it. For example, milk scores 91, fish scores 80, fermented soy scores 72, rice scores 58 and so forth. The lower the score, the greater the need for either the body or other protein foods to compliment the weaknesses. For example, the body can use all of the egg protein, but only 58% of the protein in rice.

As with the milk story, we must first define what an egg is, because the commercial agricultural methods have significantly altered the egg. In Eating Energy, the word "egg" means a free-range egg from a chicken in its natural environment living a natural lifestyle and eating its natural foods free of pesticides, hormones, antibiotics and chemicals. You'll soon see why.

In addition to excellent protein, free-range eggs also contain very important minerals including calcium, fluorine, iron, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus, sodium, and sulfur. The yolk contains vital vitamins including A, D, F, G, and B-vitamins especially B-12. Thus the egg is a powerhouse of nutrients that support the bones, muscles, tissue, nerves, and detoxification processes.

So, if the egg is such a good source of protein and nutrients, why is this discussion in the fat section? Well, the egg also contains valuable essential fatty acids and cholesterol. Eggs contain approximately 11% fat: the yolk is about 29% fat and the white contains no fat. It's the cholesterol factor that has brought the egg to the world's attention. A commercial egg contains 250 - 300 mg of cholesterol. A free-range egg contains around 194 mg of cholesterol.

It its natural form, an egg contains 1700 mg. of lecithin, more than eight times the amount of cholesterol. The lecithin is an emulsifier of fat and cholesterol. Thus, the free range or yard egg, should not be held responsible for raising cholesterol levels because between the lecithin and digestion, cholesterol is assimilated as lipids, not cholesterol. The liver decides what to do with lipids, whether to make cholesterol or not.

Wheelwright used to say, "Yard eggs don't put cholesterol in your blood any more than eating a banana puts banana in your blood. Hasn't anyone heard of digestion?"

Eggs are a bird's way of reproducing its species. Nature's plan and the simple facts of survival dictate that the egg must contain all the nutritional factors necessary for a healthy chick to survive, adapt, and be healthy. This is why the egg is rich in nutrients and highly desired by other creatures and humans as a food.

HOW TO DESTROY THE EGG

How do you destroy one of Nature's most perfect foods for human nutrition? The answer to this is quickly found in a short history of commercial egg production. Like the script of a doomsday, spy thriller, the devaluation of the egg has silently, subtlely undermined the nutritional health of the world.

If we were given the task to silently, subtlely destroy the nutritional value of the egg, the first thing we'd do is change the chicken's diet. Instead of the natural diet of nutrient rich bugs, seeds, plant materials, wild grains, and gravel, let's feed them grains grown on impoverished soil with the aid of chemical fertilizers, insecticides, and herbicides. Grains being higher in sugar than the chicken's natural diet will contribute to storage of fat - in the chicken and in the egg. Once we lower the nutritional standard for the chicken, we lower the nutrition in the egg. Now we've lowered nutrition and raised the fat content.

Step two would be to change the living environment. Let's take the hen out of the barnyard and move her indoors and cage her where we can control the environment. There, we can increase egg production beyond the hen's natural life cycles and produce more eggs with less nutrition because the egg cycle is a rhythm set by the Earth's day/night cycles. In the controlled environment, we can turn the lights on and off and thus make the "day" shorter than 24 hours so we can get 8 or more eggs per week.

Let's make our job easier. Under the guise of saving money on feed and labor costs, let's preserve the chicken feed for longer shelf life. Let's remove the essential fatty acids because they go rancid. This will also deprive the chicken of two of its most important nutrients - linoleic and linolenic acids. Now we can produce an egg that has an altered fat content that the body will struggle to deal with - maybe even affect the structure of cholesterol.

Now that we have deprived the chicken of its raw vegetable foods and the plant sterols that reduce cholesterol, we can market an egg with a 35% increase in the cholesterol content.

In an unnatural environment, the chicken is prone to infections. By adding antibiotics to the feed, we can keep them alive and laying even though Nature would cull them out as unfit to live. And, if we add growth hormones to the feed, we could keep forcing eggs out of the hen until she dies.

Now all we have to do it stack these birds in tiny cages, feed them an unnatural diet depleted in nutrients, add drugs to force egg production and keep them alive, and put the lights on a timer, and turn on the conveyer belt. Out comes something in a shell that almost looks like an egg.

Just one problem though. The yolk is a pale reflection of health. It is an anemic, washed out flat yellow, instead of a perky, bright, deep orangish-golden color. So, before we're caught, let's put a coloring agent in the feed that will artificially dye the yolk. Now throw the switch! We're producing a facsimile ghost egg in huge quantities, and not even the nutritionists, dietitians, and doctors recognize how much it's changed because most simply consult the outdated food value tables and blame the egg for cholesterol problems.

Now, we have produced a commercial egg that is not only deficient in nutrition compared to a free range, yard egg; but the altered fats just might contribute to cholesterol problems for humans. As a bonus of destruction, the antibiotics can help breed resistant strains of salmonella and we can contaminate the egg with life-threatening microorganisms.

EGGS: THE CHOLESTEROL FALLACY

Cholesterol is a subject of much misunderstanding. Caught up in this situation are eggs because they contain cholesterol. Such statements as, "Don't eat eggs, they'll put cholesterol in your blood," border on the ridiculous for the free-range, yard egg. Yard eggs do not put cholesterol in the blood as the research of Simopoulois & Salem (l989) has shown.

However, there is some evidence that the commercial egg is degenerated enough that consistent use may contribute to fat and cholesterol problems. It only makes sense because the commercial egg is designed to be cardiovascular disaster by applying the simple formula - more eggs for less labor and less cost, instead of how to produce a nutritionally superior product for human nutrition.

So, when you buy eggs, get yard or free-range eggs from the farmer or health food store. Or better yet, raise your own and apply the simple formula of what's best for nutrition - a healthy chicken in a natural lifestyle, eating a natural organic diet, and being chased by a rooster, provides an excellent, nutrient rich food for occasional and moderate consumption.

Like Humpty Dumpty, the egg has had a great fall. All the king's horses and men may not be able to put Mr. Dumpty back together again, but Nature can.

Avoid commercial eggs as inferior and inhumane. The inhumane production methods of the commercial poultry and egg industry have been discussed emotionally and eloquently by John Robbins in his famous book, Diet for a New America (l987).

But let's not throw out a wonderful, nutritious food because of what Man has done to it. Let's go "back to Nature" and rediscover a wonder food.

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More on eggs is discussed in The Pro-Vita! Plan For Optimal Nutrition available from apple-a-daypress.com

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