Soy has become a big part of the human diet post World War II, with the result that there are many people with soy allergies today, and many people today are trying to reduce or eliminate soy protein from their diet. (See the book The Whole Soy Story.) Soy is the cheapest protein available today, and it is a major component of most animal feeds. Cheap soy protein allows chickens to grow the fastest, and produce the maximum amount of eggs during their peak laying cycles. If you believe you are allergic to eggs, it could be that you are in fact allergic to soy protein that researchers have now found* to be present in egg yolks. Almost all commercial eggs, including those that are organic or marketed as “Omega 3” eggs, are from chickens fed high concentrations of soy. So if eggs are a part of your diet today, so is soy protein, whether you realize it or not. Tropical Traditions was one of the first companies to offer a soy-free egg from chickens that eat NO SOY. Tropical Traditions soy-free organic eggs have been tested to be soy-free! Tropical Traditions chickens are raised by family farmers and eat a coconut-based soy-free feed mixture that is certified organic, with no genetically modified grains (no GMOs!). Tropical Traditions developed the feed the chickens eat: Cocofeed. You can read more about Cocofeed here.
In tropical cultures, coconut has been a traditional ingredient in chicken feed for hundreds, if not thousands of years. The coconut pulp residue left over after coconut oil is extracted from the coconut meat is still a common animal feed component today in places where coconuts grow. This coconut pulp is high in fiber and protein. Mechanically extracted coconut pulp was also approved by the FDA as an animal feed and listed in the AAFCO (Association of American Feed Control Officials, Official Publication) as early as 1955. While coconut cannot supply ALL the nutritional needs of chickens, there are multitudes of studies that have been done in the Philippines and elsewhere showing how coconut pulp can be a major component of chicken feeds when combined with other quality ingredients. Some of these studies are more than 50 years old!
Highest Omega 3 Content!
Tropical Traditions doesn’t simply add flaxseed or flax meal to their chicken feed to make it “high Omega 3,” like most other producers do making claims of “high Omega 3 eggs.” In addition to eliminating soy and using organic coconut pulp, Tropical Traditions’ chickens eat a high quality fish meal and crab meal (chickens are not vegetarians!). The fish meal is from deep ocean water small fish, and our crab meal comes from the cold waters of the Pacific Northwest or Nova Scotia. They are very high quality products that add not only a high quality protein to replace soybeans, but also the purest form of Omega 3 fatty acids that come from fish sources. Laboratory testing has shown that these eggs contain almost twice as much of the Omega 3 fatty acids as other organic “Omega 3” eggs that derive their Omega 3 fatty acids from flax seeds. And not only are high quality Omega 3 sources added to the chicken’s diet, the high amount of Omega 6 fatty acids that are contained in soy are completely eliminated. Most nutritionists agree that our diet is unbalanced in its ratio of Omega 6 to Omega 3 fatty acids because of the abundance of soy and corn in our diets today. Tropical Traditions organic soy-free high Omega 3 eggs supply a much better Omega 6 to Omega 3 ratio because of the absence of soy.
Cage Free
These eggs do not come from “factory birds” where the chickens are kept in cages their whole lives and never see sunlight or go outdoors. In the summer, these chickens are pastured on lush Wisconsin grass where they are free to roam around and eat other things besides their Cocofeed, such as bugs, worms, etc. They do need to be kept indoors during the cold winter months, but they are cage free even then, and eat a balanced diet with our specially formulated nutritious Cocofeed.
Soy-free eggs delivered to your door!
Tropical Traditions has developed a special box for delivering eggs to you! This box is designed to hold four dozen eggs:
The box and dividers are 100% recyclable, and no plastic, Styrofoam, or bubble wrap is used. These boxes have been tested, and the eggs do not break! But even if they do, Tropical Traditions will refund or replace any broken eggs.
Tropical Traditions uses their own coconut water vinegar to clean the eggs, and then apply a coating of organic Virgin Coconut Oil to the shell to keep them fresh until they are delivered.
More information and order: http://www.grassfedtraditions.com/organic_soy_free_eggs.htm
*Research:
Professor M. Monica Giusti of The Ohio State University has done research on soy isoflavones appearing in commercial egg yolks. In 2009 one of her graduate students conducted some research on soy protein in egg yolks for a thesis, and Tropical Traditions supplied some of their Cocofeed for the study. Their research found: “Egg yolks of hens provided with the soy free diet, showed a rapid decrease of isoflavone concentration. From an initial isoflavone content of 52μg ± 0.73/100g it quickly diminished until at day 7, the concentration reached individual aglycone undetectable levels.”
The chickens that were fed our Cocofeed were laying hens, and had been raised on a traditional soy-based chicken feed. Their results showed that laying hens that are fed our Cocofeed, even when raised on soy-based diet, quickly lose soy protein in egg yolks once they start eating our soy-free Cocofeed. After 7 days there were “undetectable levels” of soy protein in the egg yolks. The research is here. Please note: This research is pro-soy. The researchers believe that soy is a health food, and their studies on soy protein appearing in egg yolks was seen as a way to get more soy protein into people’s diets.