Paleo Cookbook For Dummies (51 page)

The best way to get quality foods is to start building relationships with people in the know. If you go to your local fishmonger, start asking what the catch of the day is. Ask what days of the week the store gets its fresh fish deliveries. The same holds true of your local butcher. These folks will usually go out of their way to help you navigate through your choices and help you get the healthiest, leanest cuts possible.

Eggs

Because eggs are such a common protein, nailing down their quality is important. Here's some help cracking egg carton labels, from most desirable to least desirable:

Pasture-raised:
Chickens can roam freely, and their diets consist of nutritious grasses and other plants and bugs.

Animal Welfare Approved:
This regulated label is a very high welfare standard reserved mostly for family farms. Chickens have continual access to shelter and pasture. No antibiotics are used.

Food Alliance Certified:
Chickens are uncaged and have access to the outdoors. This designation is regulated.

Certified organic:
Chickens are given organic feed and no antibiotics unless they're ill and require them. They must be uncaged and have some access to the outdoors. Compliance is audited.

Certified Humane:
Chickens are uncaged inside barns or warehouses but may or may not be kept indoors. They have space to roam freely and receive no antibiotics or hormones.

Free-range:
Chickens are supposed to have access to the outdoors at least 51 percent of the time. There are no restrictions on what the birds are fed and no way to verify how long they're actually roaming around outside.

No antibiotics/no hormones:
This label is more of a marketing ploy; these terms aren't regulated, so their validity is questionable. If you're buying eggs labeled certified organic, Animal Welfare Approved, or Certified Humane (designations that are regulated), you're still getting antibiotic- and hormone-free eggs.

Omega-3:
Chickens are fed fish oil or flaxseed to up the omega-3 fatty acid levels in their eggs. However, the amount isn't regulated.

Natural:
The term
natural
is sketchy because it isn't governmentally regulated, so it doesn't indicate adherence to any specific standard. Basically, it means the eggs are minimally processed.

Cage-free:
These chickens aren't roaming around freely in the great outdoors; rather, they're kept inside barns or warehouses. They have no access to the outdoors, and their living conditions vary greatly.

Vegetarian:
Chickens are fed a diet free of animal byproducts. However, chickens aren't naturally vegetarians, so this diet is actually contrary to their makeup.