Have you ever tried prosciutto? This is the Italian version of ham, but it is not sweet and it doesn’t have that maple-y flavor of ham. Prosciutto is actually an Italian dry-cured type of ham that has a better reputation than our U.S. versions of ham and bacon.

Prosciutto is part of the European “Protected Designation of Origin” which means that for it to be true prosciutto, it must come from a particular region in Italy—similar to how wine is produced in France.

Prosciutto is just quality raw ham, sea salt, air and about of year of curing. That is all. No sugars, no nitrates or nitrites, and no other chemicals to preserve it. No artificial anything. This means prosciutto is actually not consider a ‘processed meat’, but merely a dried meat.

If you are following a keto or Paleo diet, prosciutto is the better choice, since it never has added sugar, nor does it contain any carbohydrates.

Prosciutto is sliced super thin and is full of flavor. You certainly do not need to eat a lot of it to taste its presence or to feel satisfied. That is why the prosciutto in this recipe makes it so delicious—and different from your standard eggs and bacon or eggs and ham.

When you compare prosciutto with bacon, prosciutto wins hands down. It is lower in calories, lower in fat, lower in sugar and lower in salt—and it is never made with nitrates or any other chemicals, and it has a BIG taste!

Now, let’s talk about eggs. If you have noticed lately, shopping for eggs has become more confusing—there’s regular conventional factory farm eggs which means the poor chickens are packed into a warehouse under artificial light, given antibiotics and hormones and pesticide laden grain for feed. Their beaks are often cut off so they don’t peck at each other and they are often sickly.

Then there’s ‘free range’ eggs which means the chickens are basically all stuffed in a factory farm like setting and there may be a door open in the big facility where they are raised. They don’t necessarily get to go outside, they are just not kept in cages all the time. Not a lot healthier. They are routinely given antibiotics and hormones and kept under artificial light as well. They are fed grain, often sprayed with Monsanto glyphosate.

Moving up the ladder we get to ‘organic eggs’. These chickens are fed only organic feed, but keep in mind, it’s ‘feed’, not their natural diet. Organic eggs must come from chickens that are only given antibiotics in the event of an infection. No hormones or added drugs are used in organic egg production. Chickens producing organic eggs live in a cage-free environment and must have access to the outside, even if that is just a small pen or enclosed yard.

There are now ‘pastured eggs’, not to be confused with ‘free-range’ eggs—a totally different way of raising chickens and you will notice the eggs look totally different too! Pastured eggs are about as good as you can get, unless you are raising your own chickens! Chickens are omnivores and like to hunt and peck for grubs, worms, and bugs. Pastured raised chickens get to roam around a rich field and are allowed to eat their natural diets—although they may get some organic grain to supplement their diets.

Often pastured chickens are kept in a move-able pasture, with plenty of room to roam, so they get to move to fresh fields on a regular basis. Pastured eggs are full of omega 3 fats and have rich egg yolks full of nutrients. Pastured eggs have twice as much vitamin E, almost 40% more vitamin A, two and a half times as much omega 3 fats and less omega 6 fats, compared to caged eggs.

You will notice the rich yellow-orange color of the yolks and the superior taste when you eat pastured eggs. Bon Appetite!

Prosciutto Spinach Cup Eggs

Easy to make and easy to clean up. Hold off adding salt until you’ve had a taste. Prosciutto is pretty salty, so your eggs may have all the salt they need. Serves 3-6 depending on hunger.

Ingredients

• Butter for greasing the pan
• 6-8 thin slices prosciutto
• 1 cup baby spinach or baby kale
• 6 pastured eggs
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 1 tablespoon chopped chives or chopped green onions

Directions

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 6-cup muffin tin with butter.
• Line each muffin cup with a slice of prosciutto, doing your best to cover the surface of the cup with the prosciutto so that it forms a bowl to crack the egg into. Lay a few of the spinach or kale leaves over the prosciutto.
• Crack an egg into each muffin cup and sprinkle the top with a crack of black pepper.
• Bake until the white is set but the yolk still runny, about 18-20 minutes, keeping in mind it will continue to cook a bit after it’s out of the oven.
• Remove from oven and top each egg with a pinch of green onion or chives. Let cool for 1 minute so the egg sets up enough to remove.
• Use a narrow spatula or butter knife to carefully wedge each egg out of its muffin cup. Set on a plate and serve immediately. Taste and add salt if needed.

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References
http://www.brightonyourhealth.com/salt-and-time-why-prosciutto-isnt-really-a-processed-meat/
https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/pastured-vs-omega-3-vs-conventional-eggs

The post Prosciutto Egg Cups appeared first on thenutritionwatchdog.com.

by Mike Geary

I’m always amazed how many people overlook the importance of what an animal was fed and how that relates to the nutritional benefits of that food.

Eggs are a perfect example.

As you probably know, our egg supply in the US comes mostly from factory-farmed chickens that not only live in horrendously unhealthy conditions for the chicken, but also fed an unnatural diet of grains that SEVERELY affects the nutritional qualities of the eggs for your health.

I’ve been digging around on this topic for a long time, and here are some interesting things I’ve found:

In general, the regular eggs you get at the supermarket (that are fed grains and are from factory farms) contain anywhere from 30mg to 80mg omega-3 fatty acids per egg (depending on egg size, variety of hens, exact ratio of feed, etc)

However, hens allowed to roam freely outdoors on pasture, and/or fed a diverse feed of greens, mixed vegetables, bugs, grubs, worms, etc can contain anywhere from 300mg to 700mg of omega-3’s per egg.

One such study came from a Dr. Simopoulos who analyzed the omega-3 vs omega-6 content of eggs from a farm in Greece where the chickens roamed freely on pasture and ate a variety of natural foods such as greens and bugs/worms.  These eggs were compared against analysis of “supermarket eggs” fed a typical grain-based diet in the US.

The eggs from the free roaming chickens in Greece had an omega-6 to omega-3 ratio of 1.3 to 1 while the “supermarket eggs” had a horrendous omega-6/omega3 ratio of 19.4 to 1.

As for total omega-3 content per egg in Simopoulos’ report, the eggs from the free-roaming hens in Greece had approx 300 mg of omega-3’s per egg, while the “supermarket egg” had a lowly 30 mg of omega-3’s per egg.  That’s 10x more healthy omega-3s in the pasture-raised eggs, which you know are so incredibly important for your brain health, heart health and lots more!

So the next time you hear somebody say there’s “no difference” between standard grocery store eggs (from factory farms) and the more expensive pasture-raised eggs, show them THOSE stats!

I’ve also been reading the inside of egg cartons at grocery stores lately and comparing notes on their label claims of omega-3 fatty acids.

The egg producers recently have been catching on to the public’s knowledge of the reduced omega-3 content in mass produced eggs… so certain brands have now been “fortifying” the hens diet with feed additions higher in omega-3’s to help balance out the excess omega-6’s found in eggs from grain-fed hens.

Usually, this fortification occurs by adding either flax seed or an algae meal (or fish meal) to the hens feed. The hens eat more omega-3’s and that produces a higher omega-3 content in the eggs.

Some of these so-called “omega-3 eggs” have label claims anywhere from 100mg omega-3’s to 250mg omega-3’s…  Definitely better than the 30mg omega-3’s found in the typical “supermarket eggs”.  However, pasture-raised eggs would still be healthier overall than grain-fed hens that just contained a supplement in their feed.

I also stumbled onto a specific brand of eggs recently that touted that it’s hens are fed a patented feed mixture of 20 different vegetables, grains, and minerals. Because of the diverse diet that these hens are fed, their measured omega-3 content is listed as 660mg omega-3’s per egg, as well as a perfect 1:1 ratio of omega-6 to omega-3.

This is 22x the omega-3 content of the grain-fed “supermarket egg” that contained only 30mg omega-3’s in Dr. Simopoulos’ report.

That just shows how powerful of a difference in the nutrition composition that occurs simply by feeding the hens a proper diverse diet. And we haven’t even touched on the nutritional content of vitamins, minerals, carotenoids, etc that will obviously be higher in a healthy hen fed a diverse diet as opposed to a factory farmed hen.

(Btw, this is the same thing that happens in grass-fed beef vs grain-fed beef… there are much higher omega-3 levels in grass-fed beef, and much higher levels of vitamins, minerals and antioxidants)

However, these feed improvements for hens are only a small step in the right direction. Keep in mind that these egg companies with label claims of increased omega-3 content still doesn’t necessarily mean that the hens were raised in an outdoor environment, and allowed to roam freely in the sunshine (which gives them more vitamin D) instead of being confined indoors in filthy conditions their entire lives, sitting in their own excrement, and barely able to move.

Also keep in mind that “cage-free” does NOT mean that the hens actually go outside… According to experts in the field, “cage free” eggs only means that there is a small door somewhere that the hens COULD go outside if they were somehow able to find the small door through a maze of thousands of other hens, and were smart enough to venture through it. This can vary vastly from company to company.

This is supposedly a loophole in the whole “cage-free” labeling system. I’m not sure if there’s any way currently to know IF the chickens actually ventured outside even when they’re labeled “cage-free”.

So what are the best options for the healthiest eggs?

1. By FAR the best option is if you can find pasture-raised eggs, such as a farm like Vital Farms.  This is one brand of eggs I find at my local health foods store, or at Whole Foods.  If the eggs are labeled “pasture-raised”, those are guaranteed to be the healthiest eggs you can buy, and the hens that are treated the best.

Also, if you can find a local farmer (or farmers market) where you KNOW that the hens are actually outdoors most of the time and allowed to eat a natural diet with high variety, that is great too. These will be the superstar eggs in terms of nutritional quality.

2. If you absolutely don’t see any pasture-raised eggs at your grocery store, and don’t know any local farmers, the next best options are organic eggs and/or “omega-3” eggs.  In these scenarios, we at least know that the hens ate an organic diet and/or had supplemental flax or other omega-3 rich ingredients added to their feed.

You can also read the labels on egg cartons and see if it sounds like the hens were fed a highly variable diet (instead of just grains).  Sometimes this can come from algae meal or flax seed, etc added to their diet.  This is at least an improvement over standard supermarket eggs.

Despite what you may hear from some so-called “health experts” who say that all eggs are equal, these types of eggs WILL have significant nutritional benefits compared to your typical supermarket eggs.

Remember that “cage-free” has almost no meaning, because in most cases, it’s just a tiny door that’s open and the majority of the hens will never find their way to that open door, so they never actually get to go outside in the fresh air and sunshine.  You want to look for pasture-raised eggs as the top priority, and if you can’t find those, opt for organic or omega-3 eggs as the next best alternatives.

Remember to think of price differently than most people… sure, I realize that pasture-raised eggs might be $5 or $6 per dozen instead of $3, but that’s still super cheap compared to most foods.  It’s still only 40-50 cents per egg (and maybe 15 cents more than a standard grain-fed egg), and eggs are one of the most nutrient dense foods on the planet that you can eat for your health, so it’s worth it to spend a little more on that upgrade.

Plus, you’re investing in your health with better quality foods, which can save on health care costs later!

And lastly, if you’re still not up to date about why the saturated fat and cholesterol from egg yolks is actually GOOD for you, then make sure to read this article of mine, which as you can see, has 57,000 facebook likes/shares… Why whole eggs are a LOT healthier than egg whites.

While we’re on the topic of omega 3’s and omega 6’s, did you know that there’s another “omega fat” that most people never really hear about?  It’s true, and check this out to see why…

> Odd “omega-7 oil” helps burn up to 2lbs daily (most people haven’t heard of this)

Speaking of eggs, don’t miss these articles too:

– Try this baked avocado egg recipe for a healthy fat-burning breakfast

– Before you buy eggs, you need to know these 5 things

– Guacamole deviled eggs recipe

The post Why “cage-free” eggs are a SCAM — Plus the type of eggs that have 10x to 22x more omega-3s appeared first on thenutritionwatchdog.com.