Have you guys ever heard of or seen vegetarian eggs? As someone who's living a low carb lifestyle, I buy a lot of eggs. Hubby and I go through at least three dozen eggs a week. I really wish I could spend a lot of money and get the best eggs possible. Eggs from free range, naturally fed, organic, happy chickens. Unfortunately, the price of those eggs in the store is roughly three times the price of the eggs we usually buy, and I haven't yet found a source for local eggs, which would really be the best option.
On a bit of a whim, I bought one dozen cage free, organic eggs from our local grocery store, because I wanted to do a taste off between them and the regular eggs. When I got home, I happened to notice that, not only were they cage free and organic, but they were also vegetarian.
So what the heck is a vegetarian egg? Well, let me tell you. That's an egg that comes from a chicken that eats only a vegetarian diet. Isn't that nice? The answer is yes, and no.
First, let's start with why it's not nice. Chickens aren't vegetarians. That's just all there is to it. In nature, chickens eat anything and everything that they come across. Seeds, clover, worms, dead things. Anything they come across that is even remotely edible. And this is important, because there are certain proteins in meat and animal products that chickens need to be healthy. And if they're not healthy, their eggs won't be either.
So if you see eggs that say they're cage free and also vegetarian, there's something a little wrong with this picture. You hear cage free, and you think the animals are out roaming the pasture, right? That's not entirely true. Although it's possible that they could be, most often "cage free" simply means there are no cages. Often times, the chickens are all gathered onto the floor of a barn, sometimes with the option of roosts, and usually packed so tightly that they may as well have cages.
Thus, the only thing these chickens have to eat is what the farmer gives them. And that's where the vegetarian eggs come in. They're fed a diet of 100% grains, which no chicken was ever meant to eat.
Ok, so I did say that a vegetarian egg is good as well. Why? Well, grocery store eggs almost always come from factory farming like the picture above (or from farms with a little cage for each chicken), and so they all eat a diet of grains. However, if the carton doesn't say that the eggs are vegetarian, there's a good chance that the chickens are eating grains mixed with some form of animal product. Great, right?
No, not really. Chicken feed with animal proteins in it can get those proteins from just about anywhere. Some of the sources include:
Downer cattle (cows that are too sick to stand)
The really gross parts of meat chickens
All kinds of animal poop, INCLUDING chicken poop!
(And here's one that really grossed me out).....Dead dogs and cats that have been put to sleep at animal shelters
So I think if you're going to buy grocery store eggs, it might actually be best to get vegetarian eggs. But it's certainly not the best option. If you can find pastured eggs in the store, that would be great, but I have yet to see anything like that.
So what option do you have? Well, look around where you live and see if anyone raises and sells eggs. Most likely, local eggs are either free range (they get to walk around someone's yard) or they're in a chicken coop and get to spend at least part of their time outside where they can gobble up bugs and weeds.
Where I grew up, in rural Pennsylvania, there were people raising chickens and selling eggs all over the place, and the price of a dozen eggs was hardly any higher than the grocery store. Although where I live in NY now should still be considered rural, there's a lot more city that farm land, and it's been hard to find eggs in these parts. I'd like to raise my own chickens someday, but I'm almost certain it's illegal to raise them inside the city limits, so it'll have to wait.
If you need more evidence that you should look into pastured, local, free range chickens, check out this picture. The egg on the left is from a grocery store. The egg on the right is a pastured, farm fresh egg.
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