Eggs are Not Dairy
Eggs are Not Dairy
While stating eggs are not dairy may be evident to some people, more and more, there needs to be more clarity about eggs and what food group to which they belong.
Over the past ten years or so, I have seen and heard more and more that people are categorizing eggs in the dairy group.
I don’t know where this idea came from. However, my local Costco stores have a separate refrigerator room for “Dairy,” where the milk, half and half, cream, butter, and EGGS.
Someone recently said to me that eggs are a good source of calcium. Not really. At least not the part that most of us eat. The shell is calcium, and some people eat the eggshells, but the inside of the egg is NOT a good source of calcium any more than chicken. (If you want to eat the eggshells, be safe. Those things can carry salmonella, and that will make you sick.)
Protein food - not dairy.
DAIRY are foods produced from the milk of lactating mammals. This category can include cows and goats (and potentially humans).
So milk (no nut milk), yogurt, cheese, cream, and butter are dairy foods.
Eggs come from birds.
Birds are not mammals.
Not even chickens.
Chickens are not mammals.
What food group do EGGS go in?
These are protein foods.
This food group was formerly the “meat, poultry, and fish” group.
However, eggs, beans, nuts, seeds, and other protein-rich foods also fit this group.
So eggs go in the “protein” group.
Read more about topics in this post:
Egg Labels – What You Should Know
