The Literartist

Nothing! Well, not exactly, but for our consuming purposes, pretty much nothing.

Growing up, for some reason I always had this idea that brown eggs were healthier than their pearly white brethren. Their earthy tones, perhaps, symbolized that they were more natural, or less commercialized and bleached similar to white bread and white rice. These tanned hard shell ovals always cost more too; and if I know one thing it’s that if it’s more expensive it obviously must be higher quality and healthier (organic, anyone? Side note—heard that that might be a scam too but let’s keep that for another article).

But the truth is: the reason brown eggs are brown has nothing to do with the nutritional content or the quality of the eggs in and of themselves. Instead, brown eggs are brown because they come from a different kind of chicken. “Terrackk”! That was the sound of your mind cracking! I know I heard it. This piece is similar to the “Unbuttoning the Mystery of Dry Cleaning” article, in that both aim to finally give an answer to a question you’ve always considered but never thought important enough to actually resolve.

So here’s the dirt:

White eggs are laid by white-feathered chickens that have white ear lobes, while brown-feathered chickens with red earlobes are the clucking culprits that lay those pricy brown eggs. So why is brown asking more from our wallets, you ask? Well, it turns out that the chicken that produces brown eggs, a similar species to the brown cow that gives us chocolate milk (okay fine, this one’s actually a lie kids), is larger in size and thereby requires more feed. This higher cost of “production” is the main reason as to why brown eggs command a higher price at the grocery store. Farmers and distributors pass on the cost to the consumer in the form of a higher retail markup.

Nutritionally, there is no difference. Some say brown eggs may have more Omega content but this is near negligible. If you find that the yolks have a more vibrant yellow in some eggs than others, this is more due to the quality of the feed than the egg shell’s hue. White eggs can have as much neon yellow in their Sunny Side Ups as any brown egg on the market.

And so it is, that another one of Life’s most confounding mysteries has now been solved at the Literartist. With all that hard work behind me, now all I really want is a good 3 egg-ed mushroom omelette. Protein come at me, brah! Adieu.