Joel Salatin Eggs Are 28x Higher In Folate Than USDA Tested?

[freal]

Joel Salatin is a farmers who is into producing nutrient rich foods like organic and free range and things like that, he had this to say:

"For example, we just had our eggs checked and the USDA labels for eggs says that each egg contains 37 micrograms of folic acid but ours have 1,037. It doesn’t even compare. When you consider that food is the ultimate pharmaceutical, in other words, that food should be our first line of defense in health care, you realize that connection when you start to look at the nutrient profiles of the foods that come out of these kinds of systems."

I makes you think if that is even true. That is a whooping ammount, vitamin D is probably super high also, his eggs are like supplements. Maybe this is why people in the past had such good health.

 

[BingDing]

Re: Joel Salatin eggs are 28x higher in folate than USDA tes

Interesting post, freal, I hadn't seen that before.

Joel runs Polyface Farm, which was featured in Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, which is a great read for anyone interested in the food supply.

Pollan talks about the "industrial organic" food chain, where all those eggs you see labeled organic, free range really means the door to the hen house was open and there was grass outside. But all the hens were inside eating commercial feed with organic soy, corn, fish meal, sunflower meal, etc.

 

[freal]

Re: Joel Salatin eggs are 28x higher in folate than USDA tes

I went to their site, Polyface farm and found that analysis more completely, it seem only the folate is extremely high, probably because they are eating all that foliage, vitamin A is almost the same as factory farmed. (Also there is a different content of folate mentioned than before, weird)


The below study from Mother Earth News compares Polyface Eggs with the USDA standard egg:
Polyface Farm vitamin E: 7.37 mg
USDA vitamin E: 0.97 mg
Vitamin A: 763 IU
USDA vitamin A: 487 IU
Beta carotene: 76.2 mcg
USDA beta carotene: 10 mcg
Folate: 10200 mcg
USDA folate: 47 mcg
Omega-3s: 0.71 g
USDA omega-3s: 0.033g
Cholesterol: 292 mg
USDA cholesterol: 423 mg
Saturated Fat: 2.31 g
USDA saturated fat: 3.1 g

 

[nerfherder]

I'm way late on replying to this but interesting info freal. I was wondering how to get folate into the diet of my family since I can't get them to eat liver, but this is great.

For me and my wife I'm curious about its anti-amylin aggregation properties: Benzbromarone, Quercetin, and Folic Acid Inhibit Amylin Aggregation

This is particularly good news since we raise our own chickens on pasture so have plentiful pastured eggs.

 

[schultz]

I was wondering how to get folate into the diet of my family since I can't get them to eat liver, but this is great.

Orange Juice has good folate
Asparagus also has good folate

 

[nerfherder]

I just spent a while going back through the web pages on salatin's farm and mother earth news that did the testing and there's no clear data on the folate. The only thing I found was 10.5mcg of folic acid per 100g egg written very fuzzy on a slideshow

Needless to say that's off by a factor of 1000. I am guessing someone misread 10,5 mcg as 10,5 mg, put it on their website and it has spread since then. I'll ask them.

 

[nerfherder]

Orange Juice has good folate
Asparagus also has good folate

Yes good suggestions, thanks. Asparagus is seasonal but we do like it. Maybe we can get a good supply of frozen.

OJ we have a love/hate relationship with. Kids drink endless amounts of the stuff when they should be drinking more water and less OJ. Also it is too expensive for us. Four kids can drink a lot and it isn't cheap here.

I used to get headaches from OJ, probably because it wasn't particularly ripe for production.

 

[nerfherder]

More data on supplementing folic acid on layer hens.

If pastured chickens find a lot of folic acid in their plant/insect/cereal diet they'll store folate well. Impossible to know the numbers on my farm, but even in these supplemented chickens they maxed out at about 60mcg per egg or around 100mcg per 100g. Nowhere near 1000mcg. I'm calling the Salatin number bogus.

 

[Dr. B]

Joel Salatin is a farmers who is into producing nutrient rich foods like organic and free range and things like that, he had this to say:

"For example, we just had our eggs checked and the USDA labels for eggs says that each egg contains 37 micrograms of folic acid but ours have 1,037. It doesn’t even compare. When you consider that food is the ultimate pharmaceutical, in other words, that food should be our first line of defense in health care, you realize that connection when you start to look at the nutrient profiles of the foods that come out of these kinds of systems."

I makes you think if that is even true. That is a whooping ammount, vitamin D is probably super high also, his eggs are like supplements. Maybe this is why people in the past had such good health.

what were the eggs specifically fed for the folate to be so high? I think chickens being a smaller animal, will more easily transfer any nutrient and supplements given in their food, to their eggs. this can be good and bad. but if they were given folate supplements, for example, it wouldnt be a good thing. if the folate is naturally high just from the chickens eating lots of grass, it is a good thing.

 

[Beastmode]

The best tasting eggs i've ever had. Shells were really strong and yolds were bright orange.

The soil on Polyface farms are the biggest reason for this in spite of the feed they give them.

 

[Dr. B]

The best tasting eggs i've ever had. Shells were really strong and yolds were bright orange.

The soil on Polyface farms are the biggest reason for this in spite of the feed they give them.

what could be done to make very nutritious cows milk? just 100% grass fed, organic, is enough?

 

[Beastmode]

what could be done to make very nutritious cows milk? just 100% grass fed, organic, is enough?

A cow that has access to fresh grass year around is all it would take. Polyface rotates the cows on fresh grass everyday so they would have it.

 

[Dr. B]

A cow that has access to fresh grass year around is all it would take. Polyface rotates the cows on fresh grass everyday so they would have it.

are they organic? where can we get their milk? is hay fine during winter or it needs to be fresh grass?

 

[Beastmode]

are they organic? where can we get their milk? is hay fine during winter or it needs to be fresh grass?

Good questions!

Consider using google and take a look for yourself about Polyface farms. They're very transparent with their entire process.