Eggs & Health

Solution by Nucleus T&M

After years of research, the Egg has been declared to be an extremely healthy and nutritious food for consumers. Earlier restrictions on the amounts of egg consumed (due to fear on cholesterol ) have now been withdrawn by most nutritionists and health advisories.

Research has shown that the cholesterol in an egg or for that matter in any food (dietary cholesterol) has a negligible effect in cholesterol production in the body (serum cholesterol). What has been proven is that mostly other factors (not diet) play an important part in the production of elevated blood or serum cholesterol. Given below is an approximate guide to the factors which influence elevated serum cholesterol levels.

The table shows that, i) diet as a whole plays a lesser role in increasing the level of body cholesterol; and ii) even in your diet, it is not high cholesterol food items that are the major cause of high level of body cholesterol.

Many consumers fear that poultry products such as eggs (because of intensive farming methods) contain all sorts of harmful additives which are used by farmers to grow chicken more efficiently.

While different farms do have different practices, and while regulation varies from country to country on what additives can be used, it is important to remember that most improvements in poultry production efficiency has come from i) improved genetic selection, ii) improved nutrition, and iii) improved management and disease control.

In Sri Lanka, the Department of Animal Production and Health has statutory committees which strictly control ALL feed ingredients and pharmaceutical products used in production. Quarantine controls are also very strict so that diseases are not easily brought into the country through imports of livestock. No hormones are permitted in any animal feed in Sri Lanka. However, some antibiotics are approved as growth promoters for use in animal feed.

At Switz Farm, we have an even stricter code and we do not use any antibiotic growth promoters. Instead we have turned to Pro-biotics and Pre-biotics to keep our chickens healthy.

Pro-biotics are cultures of beneficial bacteria and live yeasts. These beneficial live cultures colonize the birds gut and prevent pathogenic bacteria from establishing themselves (competitive exclusion).

Pre-biotics are Manan Oligo sachcharides (MOS), extracted from the cell walls or certain yeasts. They prevent pathogenic bacteria such as Salmonella from multiplying by allowing beneficial bacteria to grow stronger. The pathogenic bacteria then are passed harmlessly through the gut out of the bird.

We feel that the above policy is optimal because the chicken is kept healthy and is less susceptible to getting sick, while the consumer does not have to risk eating foods with antibiotic residues.