Is There a Health Benefit to Buying Organic Free-Range Eggs?

What's so wonderful about organic, free-range eggs? Do they taste better? Are they better for you? They certainly cost a heck of a lot more. Is it worth it to pay twice as much just so chickens have more satisfactory lives?

If you read the packages, you'll probably find these three phrases on each: organic, free-range, and hormone-free. You need to understand what these qualifiers mean to understand why the eggs cost more.

The word "organic" means the chickens who produced these eggs were fed all-natural feed, not feed produced under the influence of pesticides, and this means you get to eat natural eggs, untainted by pesticides. So when you pay that extra money to get the organic eggs, you're paying to protect yourself from chemicals.

If the eggs are labeled "hormone-free", this means the chickens were not injected or fed hormones to make them grow really fat or be disease-resistant or to turn into mega-egg producers. This is considered a bonus because then you aren’t taking the risk that the hormones given to the chicken may now be given to you (through you eating the eggs), which may or may not cause you and your children problems.

If the chickens are raised free-range, this means they are not kept in one of those mega chicken houses where the chickens are kept in cages the size of a large toaster and never move, only just eat and crap and lay eggs in uncomfortable, unsanitary conditions. Chickens who live in these mega-henhouses are often unhealthy, since they are stacked one on top of another, unable to move even to eat, drink, or defecate. The bottom line is you are paying for the chickens to live good lives if you pay for free-range eggs, but you're also paying for eggs produced by healthier chickens.

The ultimate question: Do organic, free-range, hormone-free eggs taste better? The average person doesn't think they taste different. It's up to you to weigh the following factors: Is it worth it to pay extra for eggs that are not contaminated by chemicals, that are hormone-free, and were produced by healthy, happy chickens?