I remember growing up, every Saturday morning my Dad would make bacon and eggs with whipped orange juice for breakfast.  It was such a delight to be half asleep and wake up to the aroma wafting in my room, tempting me from my dreams.  

Nowadays, everyone is telling us that eggs are bad for us, "They're fattening and will raise your cholesterol!"  Long gone are the days of quiche and "eggie sandwiches".  

Well, fear no more, because what goes up must come down and the egg-cellent news of the day is: Free-Range Eggs ARE good.  Not only are they full of protein but they taste good too! 

There's quite a debate going on about caged-in vs. free range birds...but let's face it, do you want to eat eggs from a bird who happens to occupy the bottom of the cage, who never gets the run of the yard or has hundreds of other "chicks" clucking in her ear all day long?  Ever heard the phrase "crazy chicken"?   Hmmm? 

Research on free-range eggs provides more evidence that industrial agriculture is producing substandard food. Tests of eggs from four free-range flocks found that, compared to U.S. Department of Agriculture nutrient data for eggs from confinement production systems, the eggs from chickens raised on free range were:

• much more nutritious
• up to twice as rich in vitamin E
• two to six times richer in beta carotene (a form of vitamin A) and
• four times richer in omega-3 fatty acids. 
• the free-range eggs averaged only half as much cholesterol as the USDA data indicates for confinement-system eggs.
• The testing was conducted by Skaggs Nutrition Laboratory at Utah State University and Food Products Laboratory in Portland, Ore., for Mother Earth News magazine.

So go ahead, make that cookie dough, pancake or omlet with Free-Range eggs and waft away into healthy eating the natural way. Pass the Salt!

Enjoy,

Beth Aldrich