Egg Yolk Nutrition Undermined By Marigolds

It’s science fair season in this house and my eighth grader’s project on egg yolk nutrition has us all stumped. Our dinner table conversation is altered and our minds are a little blown. We’ve been undermined by marigolds!

The project included 20 chickens fed different types of feed: vegetarian feed, free ranging vegetarian feed, free ranging and foraging, free ranging with non-GMO feed and raw organ meat feed.

My son’s main objective was to show the obvious lack of nutrition in eggs fed vegetarian feed – because chickens aren’t vegetarians.

I’m going to be honest, my son is a chicken freak. His school breaks don’t include going to the bathroom like normal people, he goes to visit the chickens. He talks to them, he names them, he even rides his bike with them on his handlebars. We call him the chicken whisperer. When he found out they were being fed vegetarian feed he wasn’t just baffled, it broke his heart. 

So he set out to prove the travesty. What he found was baffling.

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What should have happened was the vegetarian fed yolks would be pale in color, lacking vitamins A and D and other nutrients from the diet not designed as chickens eat. The vegetarian free rangers should have had darker yolks, the free ranging non-GMO feed a bit darker, the free ranging and foraging darker still and the raw organ meat fed chickens the darkest yolks.

The problem was the vegetarian fed yolks were almost the same in color as the raw organ meat yolks. So, in an effort to find some answers, he picked up the phone and called the companies. After 3 companies were contacted he found they were all fed corn and soy, no matter if the eggs were labeled vegetarian or not. Since all their yolk colors were different there was more to the story. Yes, the type of chicken house makes a difference, if they are in cages or roaming a dirt floor shoulder to shoulder or if they are outside on pasture. But these yolks he tested, the yolks that competed with his raw organ meat fed chickens, were from chickens in chicken houses. They were not basking in the sun. They were not eating ticks and worms along with grass and weeds.

My son further researched the reason for the intensity of the yolk color and found that a lot of store bought eggs have been manipulated to give darker and more vibrant yolks.

He found that all the way back to 1966 people have been doing experiments on this very same subject. Poultry Science published an article about adding carotenoids to chicken feed to change the color of their yolks to a darker yellow, “β-Cryptoxanthin biofortified maize increased β-cryptoxanthin in the yolk and contributed to yolk color.”

Feeding the chickens dark colored carrots or tomato paste made the yolks darker and more vibrant, appealing in color.

Feeding the chickens dark orange colored marigolds resulted in darker yolks but the eggs were smaller for an unknown reason.

Putting red pepper powder and pigment in the feed increased the weight and color intensity of the eggs.

Flax seed is a carotenoid, (xanthophyll) but it lightened the color of the egg yolks. Since the companies were not looking for lighter yolks, as darker yolks are favored since they reflect more nutritious yolks in free ranging chickens, flax was dropped form the feed while the colored feed was emphasized to increased yolk color. 

He found the major chicken egg companies feed darker colored corn and soy to their chickens to get a darker and more vibrant yolk to make it more appealing to the consumers.

Companies have been trying to manipulate the yolk color for years using colored food methods as well as visible light spectrophotometer.

The Journal of Science and Food Agriculture reported supplementing the feed of egg-laying hens with coloured carrots efficiently increased yolk colour parameters and carotenoid contents, which gives opportunities for improved nutritional value of eggs from forage material-supplemented hens.

Journal of Lipids reported the use of dark colored marigolds (Tagetes erecta L.) was reported to be a good source of xanthophylls and used for pigmentation of the egg yolks and poultry skin

Xanthophylls are typical yellow pigments of leaves, oxygenated carotenoids

Asian-Australian Journal of Animal Science reported the results of the present experiments indicate that dietary inclusion of both red pepper powder and pigment were successful in increasing the egg yolk score of laying hens which would make these eggs more attractive to potential consumers. Neither product produced any negative effects on laying hen productivity and both products had a tendency to increase the weight of the eggs from treated hens.

Poultry Science showed adding flax to these diets seemed to depress yolk lutein content. 

Journal of Agircultural and Food Chemistry showed yolks from hens fed orange maize had scores indicating a darker, orange color.

Although he set out to show proper nourishing feed would cause a darker yolk reflecting a higher nutritional value, my son found that manipulating the feed with

tomato paste, colored marigolds, red pepper flakes, dark orange carrots and colored corn was by far cheaper, yet manipulative.

Lesson learned.

*Nourishing Plot is written by Becky Plotner, ND, traditional naturopath, GAPS who sees clients in Rossville, Georgia. She works as a Certified GAPS Practitioner who sees clients in her office, Skype and phone. Since her son was delivered from the effects of autism (Asperger’s syndrome), ADHD, bipolar disorder/manic depression, hypoglycemia and dyslexia through food she continued her education specializing in Leaky Gut and parasitology through Duke University, finishing with distinction. This is not a news article published by a paper trying to make money. This blog is put out by a mom who sees first hand the effects of nourishing food vs food-ish items. No company pays her for writing these blogs, she considers this a form of missionary work. It is her desire to scream it from the rooftops so that others don’t suffer from the damaging effect of today’s “food”.

“GAPS™ and Gut and Psychology Syndrome™ are the trademark and copyright of Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride. The right of Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Patent and Designs Act 1988.