You know when you just feel something is wrong but you can’t prove it?
I remember looking at a menu that said this steak is proudly “grain-fed” and somehow it was the most expensive steak on the menu.
Growing up we watched cows eat grass, not grains, but every time I’d see such a menu option I just assumed grain-fed was better.
Today I know better.
And the same goes for so many other foods. For the last couple of years I’ve watched egg cartons promote “vegetarian diets” as a positive thing.
But on our family’s farm I remember watching chickens eat all sorts of things including insects and bugs. They were not on a vegetarian diet and the eggs tasted amazing.
This great article goes into much more detail, The Truth About Inferior Grain-Fed Eggs:
What Chickens Really Eat
When allowed to live as nature intended, chickens hunt, peck and scratch the ground for anything they can find. They’re scavengers who eat grass, seeds, insects, worms and even lizards, snakes and mice. Simply put, they’re omnivores who eat both plant and animal food substances.
The natural diet of any animal is crucial to its health – and the health of it’s offspring. In the case of chickens, this optimal natural diet includes animal protein sources.
Problems With 100% Grain Diets
While our supermarket frustrations are real – compared to many “Frankenfoods”, trans fats, and processed toxins – a grain-fed, Omega-3 enriched egg is not the worst thing we could eat. Neither is it the nutritional superstar that egg carton marketing would have you believe. And therein lies the problem – the fact that every egg carton BRAGS about feeding these chicken a vegetarian grain diet as if this somehow makes the chicken healthier and justifies the higher price of your egg. IT DOESN’T!
In fact, this grain-only diet has the opposite effect. It makes the chickens less healthy and they in turn produce an anemic, vitamin devoid, pale, inflammatory egg.
