Are You Worried About Bacteria From Raw Eggs?

Photo Credit: Etsy, Heart Hook Home

My husband’s family made fabulous raw egg ice cream since before he was born in 1951 on their farm – and no one ever got sick. Hundreds of friends enjoyed their homemade vanilla ice cream over the years. It’s how it was always done.

Our experience has born this out with our own pastured (free-range) chickens. Homemade raw egg mayonnaise, egg nog, slaw dressing, raw cookie dough, etc. No one ever sick.

click image to go to my mayo recipe

With prices going sky high on food and more families that are able to getting their own small flock of chickens for eggs, this information bears repeating. We’ve lost so many of the old ways to our detriment.

1. God has beautifully and intricately designed chicken eggs (as he does with everything) so that they have several levels of protection from external bacteria. There is an invisible coating on the outside of the eggs when they are laid, called a bloom. When eggs are washed, they lose that natural protective bloom. This is why the you want to get unwashed eggs!

They also contain the shell as a 2nd barrier of defense against bacteria.

Finally, the outer, thinner layer of egg white is very acidic, destroying almost any other bacteria that gets through the other two barriers.

2. Salmonella is mostly only a concern with factory-farmed chickens. Buying eggs from local farmers with organic hens that roam outside have a much much smaller likelihood of being contaminated with salmonella. A study showed that 23.4% of farms with caged hens tested positive for salmonella compared to 4.4% in organic flocks and 6.5% in free-range (not organic) flocks. Unwashed eggs from organically-fed free-roaming flocks have almost no chance of salmonella. (Crowded nest boxes just don’t happen unless you have a broody hen, and then she will often sit on them and hatch them herself without an incubator.)

3. Furthermore, raw eggs contain valuable nutrients, including digestive enzymes that are missing from the average American’s diet. Raw eggs are easy to digest and a great boost for the immune system. (Maybe that’s why old-fashioned eggnog was always popular in the winter time!)

4. Finally, salmonella is only a problem in people with poorly-functioning digestive systems and an ‘out-of-balance’ gut. A healthy gut has stains of bacteria in the microbiota that fight the pathogenic forms.

(For more info on the benefits of raw eggs and the truth about salmonella, go here: https://www.regenerativenutrition.com/friendly.asp?url=Health-Benefits-of-Raw-Eggs

Make sure your eggs are properly refrigerated.

The Great Egg Panic is a revealing article by The LA Times. and states, “Sickening from salmonella has been exaggerated in the past. A study by the U.S. Department of Agriculture in 2002 indicated that only 2.3 million, of the 69 billion eggs produced annually, are contaminated with salmonella. That’s just 0.003% or 1 in every 30,000 eggs. The bulk of these come from battery chicken eggs and chickens kept in unhealthy conditions – only sick chickens lay salmonella contaminated eggs. Salmonella is found almost everywhere, and is just as likely, or more likely, to proliferate on cooked food kept in the fridge. 

“The CDC notes that Salmonella (S. enteritidis) can be deadly, even with what they admit is extreme rarity. In the 14 years of the S. enteritidis “epidemic,” from 1985 to 1998, there were 79 verified deaths. At a rate of about five deaths a year, this is one-tenth the number of people killed in the U.S. each year by lightning. The deaths occured among the disabled in nursing homes and hospitals (so it may not have even been raw egg). “It’s more likely to kill a person who’s elderly, or an infant, or someone who has a serious immune deficiency.” (source)

These people rightly should only eat cooked eggs.

“During the middle ages and through the 17th century in England, raw eggs were popular additions to beer (they drank fermented beer because they didn’t have clean water). Someone who was sick might be prescribed beer mixed with a raw egg.” ~Source

More Old-Time Egg Wisdom

• How to Store Eggs at Room Temp for 6 Months Shelf Life in Lime Water
• My Cast Iron Skillet Frittata: Hearty, So Quick and So Easy
• What Is A Chicken Tractor and Thoughts On Having Chickens
• Eggs Are the Healthiest, Full-Range Nutritive Food on the Planet
• The Perfect Boiled Egg For Your Preferred Yolk Doneness
• Is There a Coming Food Shortage? Some Things to Consider Now

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Medical Disclaimer: I am no longer a practicing medical professional, and I am not doctor. I am a mother. I do seek scientific confirmation of the safety and effectiveness of the herbs and remedies I use. Using remedies is a personal decision. Nothing I say on this blog is intended to treat or prevent disease. Consult your own doctor.

Photo Credit: Etsy, Heart Hook Home

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