A Marvel of Nature… The Incredible Edible Chicken Egg

November 7th, 2015

Awake Goy

Egg consumption statistics are mind-boggling. Every year, more than 6.6
billion dozen eggs (more than 79 billion in total) are produced in the
United States, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture predicts that each
American eats about 255 eggs per year – which is actually down from the
1950s, when annual egg consumption was around 400 per person. ~ Dan Myers

Chicken eggs are one of the most commonly eaten foods on the planet, and also one of the most versatile. They can be fried, poached, hard-boiled, deviled, coddled, shirred, or scrambled,
and are incorporated, both cooked and raw, into thousands of recipes.

They’re the glue that holds much of the food we eat together, from brownies to meatloaf,
and on top of all that, they’re delicious and nutritious. We bet
that there are some things that you didn’t know about the incredibly versatile egg.

There are
about 280 million egg-laying chickens in the U.S., and egg farms even
have their own advocacy groups, among them the Iowa Egg Council, the Virginia Egg Council, and the New England Brown Egg Council.

Bird eggs have been a valuable food source since prehistoric
times, and since then eggs have been an indispensable part of global
cuisine, appearing in everything from Middle Eastern shakshuka to
Taiwanese oyster omelettes, from Mexican huevos rancheros to Iranian
baghali ghatogh, from Italian frittatas to British kedgeree, and from
Jewish matzo brei to Japanese okonomiyaki. Their uses really are infinite.

Read on to learn a whole bunch of things you most likely didn’t know
about chicken eggs, from what the top egg-producing state is to what the
name of that little white squiggly thing inside every raw egg is.

Eggs
are one of those foods that you either love or hate – some people gag at
the smell of them, and others eat one for breakfast every day, like
Abraham Lincoln did (fun fact) – but you have to admit, eggs are one of
the most indispensable foods in existence.

The Most Common Breed of Egg-Laying Chicken is the White Leghorn

A must-have at every farm.

The breed was first imported to America in 1828 from the Italian port city of Livorno; leghorn
is an anglicization of the city’s name. (Fans of the old Loony Tunes
and Merrie Melodies cartoons may remember the strutting, stentorian
rooster Foghorn J. Leghorn.)

Iowa is America’s Top Egg-Producing State

Nearly 15 billion eggs are produced in Iowa every year, with the egg industry employing about 8,000 workers. Other top egg-producing states include Ohio, Indiana, and Pennsylvania.

219 Million Male Chicks are Killed by the Egg Industry Each Year

If only female chickens lay eggs, then what happens to all the male ones?
Since leghorns aren’t considered viable meat producers (as opposed to
broiler chickens, which are raised exclusively for meat production),
unfortunately the most obvious answer is the correct one.

One Leghorn Produces About 280 Eggs Per Year

Leghorns are lightweight and mature quickly, and also don’t brood (sit
on top of the eggs and behave threateningly toward all who approach), so
they’re perfectly suited to egg production. Some produce up to 320 eggs
per year.

Hens start laying eggs at 19 weeks, and as they get older,
the eggs grow in size; the largest eggs are called Jumbo (30 ounces per dozen), while the smallest are called pee-wee (15 ounces per dozen).

Each large egg contains about 186 milligrams of cholesterol, and the USDA recommends that we limit our cholesterol intake to 300 milligrams per day.

Forget USDA recommendations and concerns about limiting our cholesterol intake read more about the biggest lies of mainstream nutrition…

Eggs Are Unhealthy?

There’s one thing that nutrition professionals have had remarkable
success with… and that is demonizing incredibly healthy foods.

The worst example of that is eggs, which happen to contain a large amount of cholesterol and were therefore considered to increase the risk of heart disease.

Recently it has been proven that the cholesterol in the diet doesn’t
really raise the cholesterol in blood. In fact, eggs primarily raise
the “good” cholesterol and are NOT associated with increased risk of
heart disease (1, 2).

What we’re left with is one of the most nutritious foods on the planet. They’re high in all sorts of nutrients along with unique antioxidants that protect our eyes (3).

To top it all of, despite being a “high fat” food, eating eggs for
breakfast is proven to cause significant weight loss compared to bagels
for breakfast (4, 5).

Bottom Line… Eggs DO NOT cause heart disease and are among the
most nutritious foods on the planet. Eggs for breakfast can help you
lose weight.

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