So, what's with eggs?

We eat something because everyone around us is eating it, and they eat because everyone around them is eating it! Rarely does anyone pause to think – should we eat this?

Has it ever crossed your mind to check what hen's eggs are actually? Well, a hen is a female and has a menstrual cycle. During her cycle, an ovary sends a yolk on its path that forms an egg white as it moves through the reproductive tract into a shell gland. The shell takes 21 hours to form and gets ejected out of the hen as an egg. In short, eggs are a hen's period.

Now that we know this truth, here are other reasons why eggs need to be kept out of our plates…

Cholesterol bombs

A large egg contains about 185 mg of cholesterol. This is largely present in the yolk. Not at all recommended for heart health.

High in saturated fats

All the iron, proteins and vitamin A that eggs provide are easily available in a plant-based diet. We don't need to top them up with saturated fats.

Salmonella

Eggs are the vehicles that transport the spread of bacteria like salmonella, which is one of the main causes of food-borne illness and death.

Cruelty-full

Hens are packed into battery cages, with their beaks chipped off so they don't peck at each other. These cages are kept in dark filthy sheds. The hens often develop reproductive diseases and are slaughtered after two years when they cannot lay ovulate any more.

Free-range? Not really

It just means they get to go outdoors, but the duration and treatment are quite ambiguous. The term 'free-range' is more of a marketing spiel, and of course, involves cruelty. The eggs still contain cholesterol and fat.

Lay more than they can

Naturally, a hen in the wild will produce about 25 to 30 eggs in a year, whereas on egg farms they are forced to produce 250 eggs! This reduces their lifespan too, as laying an egg is a very laborious process.

You may be eating a fertile egg!

When a hen mates with a rooster, she delivers fertile eggs, which if kept in the right conditions, hatches a chick. Farmers can't always know whether the eggs are a result of pregnancy or periods.

Pollutants

A by-product of egg-farms is hen manure that pollutes water-ways and gets into our drinking water, suffusing it with nitrogen and phosphorous.