Free Range chickens really do make healthier eggs

in #health8 years ago (edited)

http://www.earth.com/news/eggs-free-range-hens-may-better/

Free-range hens are often healthier birds – and it shows in their eggs, according to a new study.

Researchers from Reading University studied 270 eggs from supermarkets in the United Kingdom. They found that the yolks of eggs from free-range hens had about 30 percent more vitamin D than eggs from hens kept indoors or in cages.

The vitamin usually comes from sunlight, and free-range birds allowed to wander outdoors get a lot more of it than their caged colleagues.

Vitamin D can help prevent certain cancers, heart disease and diabetes. It’s found in only a few foods, including egg yolks, oily fish and liver. Otherwise, it comes primarily from the sun or supplements.

In the UK, where the study was conducted, millions of people develop vitamin D deficiencies during the winter months, when sunlight is scarce and people spend more time indoors, the researchers said.

Hens that have access to the outdoor runs and vegetation – and more sunlight – produce eggs high in the vitamin. But organic farms where hens have the most freedom and lowest amounts of genetically modified feed also have a spike in a form of the vitamin called 25-hydroxy D3, which is especially beneficial to human health, the scientists said.

Free-range and organic eggs account for about half of the eggs sold in the UK. The rest come from large egg farms where the chickens are kept in barns, usually in “colony cages” that allow perching and nesting, but no access to the outdoors.

The barn eggs generally contain about 1.7 micrograms of vitamin D, compared to 2 micrograms in free-range eggs and 2.2 in organic eggs. UK health officials recommend 10 micrograms of vitamin D per day for adults, and 7 to 8.5 micrograms for children.

Robert Brown of the McCarrison Society, a nutritional think tank, said the study is not surprising. Hens naturally (and domestically, until after World War II) had access to the outdoors and natural foods, he said. Putting them in industrial sheds allows farms to produce more eggs at lower expense, but it can also lower eggs’ health benefits, he added.

Jon Walton of the Soil Association agreed. Organic agricultural operations put animal welfare first, he said, and their animals live a healthier, more natural life.

The study was published in the journal Food Chemistry.

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I agree with the article on the basic principle however hasn't the industry, marketing and the regulators completely ruined the label "free range" and others? I recall seeing a petition fly around the other day because the USDA just pulled another fast one on us. Again, I applaud the article and premise behind it, just don't trust the labels anymore without background. I look at color/texture diversity on the shell and for orange yolks.

This site seems to have some good references that check out. Appears there is much room for interpretation with "free range" and others. I hope the UK has better regulations that we do in the US.

"The USDA definition of "free-range" is rather vague. In order to label their meat and poultry "free-range or free-roaming", "Producers must demonstrate to the Agency that the poultry has been allowed access to the outside." (1) No mention of vegetation (pasture) is made. Poultry producers themselves seem to have no common standards on what the term means. Some producers interpret "access to the outside" as a small pop-door (chicken door) on an end-wall of a 100 ft. long shed filled with un-caged birds moving about freely on a litter-covered floor. Others feel they are compliant with the spirit of free-range if their birds are outside in the fresh air and sunshine; even if their "range" is bare dirt.

When it comes to the consumer's perception of "free-range", arguably the vision that "free-range" most often conjures is of an un-fenced bird happily hunting and pecking in the grass. Because of the wholesomeness associated with the term "organic", many consumers take for granted that all certified organic poultry raised for meat and eggs are raised outside on green pasture. Sadly, this is not so. The term "free-range" is not even listed in the NOP (National Organic Program) "terms defined."(6) They do give guidelines that say: "All organically raised animals must have access to the outdoors..."(2) So when someone purchases poultry products labeled "free range" or "organic", the birds may never have actually seen the light of day or green grass its entire life. Technically, they simply have to have a door out of their confinement, but they don't have to necessarily walk through that door to meet the requirements."

Edit - adding link: http://pasturedpoultry.org/pasturedpoultry.htm

This looks like a good egg scorecard to use as a base for more research:

https://www.cornucopia.org/organic-egg-scorecard/