Some eggs are making me sick, and I figured out why!
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Do you feel sick after eating eggs, but not all eggs? I may have cracked the code on why some eggs leave me feeling nauseous and achy, while others leave me feeling fine.
Why do eggs make me sick?
I've been meaning to write about this for a long time. Someone other than me must be suffering from this and not know it. It took me months to figure out that eggs were making me sick to my stomach. Maybe I can help someone else figure it out quicker than I did.
About fifteen months ago, I started feeling sick to my stomach. Not always nauseous, more like how you feel when you know you're going to have diarrhea. And my back was killing me all the time. Sometimes I felt feverish. I felt like this all day, every day, for the summer of 2013. It really sucked. I slept a lot, and was in fog much of the time.
Ruling Out Wheat
My big fear, at first, was that I was having a problem with wheat. I live on bread and pasta. Take away my carbs and you might as well take away my soul as well. But I was feeling so terrible that I actually tried giving up wheat.
My plan was to do it for a week and see if things got better. But I quit after four days because there was no change. On the one hand I was glad - I could still eat bread! But on the other, I still had no clue what was going on.
Blood and stool tests
After about a month I really started to get worried. Did I have some kind of horrible intestinal disease? Were the amoebas that had hitch-hiked back home with me after a trip to South America in 1998 making a comeback tour? Did I have some kind of cancer?
I went to my doctor, who checked me out and ordered some blood tests and stool tests (man, was that an experience, let me tell you…on second thought, I'm not going to, because it was a really really really gross process). I was afraid of what the tests would find, but whatever it was would be better than not knowing and just feeling sick all the time.
The tests showed nothing.
Breakthrough
Then, after about three months of feeling like that (it was beginning to feel normal - I have no idea how I was functioning), I took the kids to my mom's house in Buffalo for a six-day visit.
One of the reasons I love visiting my mom is that my favorite fast food restaurant, Mighty Taco, is on her corner. Usually, when I'm staying with her I just wait to eat until Mighty Taco opens up at 10:30 and have a nice healthy breakfast of burritos and nachos.
Despite how I was feeling, I kept to my usual Might Taco breakfast schedule (I mean, it wasn't going to make my stomach worse). And by day three I realized that I was feeling better! Not just better, but good. By the time I left my mom's house to head back to Brooklyn, I felt totally normal.
And on the drive back it hit me. It hit me like a ton of bricks falling on my head. I hadn't had a single egg in six days.
At home I start pretty much every single day off with an egg or two, scrambled or in an omelet. I've been doing this for decades. And now, suddenly, eggs appeared to be making me sick.
Was it an egg allergy?
I started reading everything I could about egg allergies, and at first it seemed like that was what I had. It was weird, though, to develop an egg allergy as an adult. Everything I read said that it was most common in kids, and that they usually outgrew it. Also, allergy symptoms usually happen immediately, not several hours later. And I didn't have any kind of respiratory or skin symptoms, which usually go with allergies.
Was it an egg intolerance?
Doing more reading, I discovered that there is such a thing as egg intolerance, which is different from an allergy. I seemed to match the most common symptoms perfectly:
- nausea
- diarrhea
- stomach cramps
- acid reflux
- achy feeling
- brain fog
- fatigue
- headaches
- joint pain
- feverish feeling
Experimenting
When I got home I started experimenting. First, I made some cookies using eggs as an ingredient, and ate a couple. I was fine. I could still eat baked goods! Yay!
Then I hard-boiled an egg and ate that. Again, no reaction. Eggs cooked very well seemed to be OK. Egg salad and deviled eggs were still a go!
Then, just to make sure, I scrambled an egg on my third morning back and ate it. And within three or four hours, that sick feeling came back. Bingo. It took almost two days until I felt OK again.
I was glad (dancing-in-the-streets thrilled, actually) that I'd found the culprit. I would miss eating scrambled eggs, but at least I knew what to avoid.
Fresh brown eggs didn't make me sick!
A couple of months later I was back at my doctor's office for something routine and I mentioned what I'd discovered. She suggested that I try a really fresh egg. Like, right out of the chicken fresh. Hmm.
I figured that Fresh Direct was my best shot. I bought the freshest, most expensive eggs they carried. And I ate one scrambled. And I was fine!!!
Then the next time I bought them, I felt sick again. What the heck was going on?
I kept experimenting with different brands, and found one that never makes me sick. They're expensive, brown eggs from pastured chickens. Maybe it's what the chickens are eating, or maybe this farm gets its eggs to the store quickly. I have no idea! All I know is that I can even eat runny eggs with this brand and I feel fine. (For people who have these brands in their stores, brown pastured eggs from Handsome Brook Farms and Vital Farms are both fine for me.)
Is it the egg whites?
A bunch of things that I read said that for most people with an egg sensitivity, it's usually the whites that are causing the problem. I don't think that's what happened with me. I can eat those liquid egg whites no problem.
I also have no problem with egg sandwiches from Burger King and Dunkin' Donuts, which both use a pasteurized liquid egg product, the kind you pour out of a carton.
I'm able to eat egg sandwiches from McDonald's with no problems as well, which initially confused me. I used to be a grill cook at McDonald's and had personally cracked thousands of white eggs on breakfast shifts. I assumed they still used fresh whole eggs, and had originally written here that perhaps McDonald's just went through so many eggs that they never got the chance to get old.
But a reader clued me in that McDonald's now also uses liquid packaged eggs! (I'm not sure why I didn't look this up myself while writing this post instead of just assuming that everything was still the same as when I worked there several decades ago. I guess I didn't want to admit that I'm that old!!)
Sure enough, McDonald's now uses liquid eggs in some of its breakfast menu items, but not all.
Basically, if you get an Egg McMuffin, that egg was a whole egg cracked onto the grill. If you get scrambled eggs, those are made from packaged liquid eggs, but are cooked right there on the grill.
The folded eggs that are used on biscuit sandwiches are also liquid eggs, but they were cooked off-site and frozen, and then heated up on the grill at McDonald's. And lastly, the eggs in their breakfast burritos are made from liquid eggs that are cooked off-site, and then microwaved at McDonald's.
So if you have issues with fresh eggs but not packaged liquid eggs, choose accordingly!
Old Eggs
As eggs age, they develop sulfur, and I'm guessing that that's the key here for me (and it's only a guess-I am very much not a doctor!). Really really old, rotten eggs smell overwhelmingly like sulfur, but it takes a long time for an egg to get to that point. There's an in-between point where they don't smell like sulfur yet, but they're no longer fresh.
You can get a clue as to how old an egg is based on whether it floats, stands, or sinks in water. As an egg ages, its protective membrane gets weaker, and air gets inside. A fresh egg will sink, an older egg will stand on end, and a really old egg will float (doesn't mean that that egg isn't safe, it's just old).
According to the USDA, which regulates eggs, the "use by" date can be as long as 45 days after the egg was packed (and they don't seem to define how long the egg can hang around the farm before being packed, either!):
Terminology such as "Use by", "Use before", "Best before" indicates a period that the eggs should be consumed before overall quality diminishes. Code dating using these terms may not exceed 45 days including the day the eggs were packed into the carton.
But here is a factory egg on the left and an expensive farm-fresh egg on the right. Both sank. So if age really is the culprit, we're talking about an amount of time that's a lot smaller than this test can determine.
If I had the patience, I would buy several dozen eggs with the same dates and eat one a day until I got sick, to determine how old an egg could be before it affected me. But I don't see myself doing that any time soon. I buy a dozen eggs from pastured hens each week, and I use the leftovers from the week before for hard-boiled eggs or baking.
Restaurants
I can no longer eat eggs at any old restaurant. Diner and coffee shop eggs have made me sick.
Sometimes if I'm at a really nice restaurant I'll grill my server on how fresh the eggs are (yes, I've had to become that person) and get some, but usually, I just skip them.
As I mentioned before, fast food egg sandwiches seem to agree with me just fine. I cannot, however, eat breakfast sandwiches from our local bagel place, which really bums me out, because we order from there almost every weekend. I tried it twice, and felt sick both times.
Why Write Now?
So why am I writing about this today of all days? Because I'm still getting tripped up by this and did it to myself again yesterday!
I made fresh pasta the way I always make fresh pasta: one egg per person. And since I was making a large amount of pasta and meatballs, I had to send my husband to the store for a couple cartons of eggs. Cheap, factory eggs, because that's what he buys. And since I wasn't cracking the eggs into a pan and eating them right away, it totally didn't occur to me that I needed to use the good eggs!!!
I had two big bowls of pasta last night and then went to bed. I woke up several times last night with reflux and I felt terrible. Feverish and crampy and nauseous.
I woke up this morning thinking it was just the red sauce, which always gives me trouble if I eat it too late. But as the day wore on I felt worse and worse. I asked my husband if he felt OK. I was scared to ask our dinner guests from the night before if they felt sick. Had I poisoned our friends somehow?
And then my back started to hurt and I realized what was going on. Crap.
The good news is (besides the fact that I didn't sicken my friends and family with a pasta dinner somehow), I know that I should feel fine by this time tomorrow.
So what can you do?
If you suspect that you have an intolerance to eggs, I suggest you do on purpose what I did accidentally: stop eating them and see how you feel.
If you feel better, try eating them very well cooked, like in baked goods and hard-boiled eggs. Try liquid eggs. Find really fresh eggs and see if those are OK. Try brown eggs. Try white eggs. Try eggs from pastured chickens that eat grubs all day. See what happens.
Just make sure you give it enough time between so that you know for sure what is affecting you. It takes me about two days to recover after eating eggs that don't agree with me, so if you're testing, you should probably give yourself three days to see if the symptoms go away.
Good luck!
WOW!!!! What a well written in-depth article! I think I’ve nailed down my stomach cramps,sore back and overall, not feeling great, thanks to you! I eat eggs three or four times a week and have struggled with shoulder pain/joint pain for a few months. So now I am eager to stay off eggs for a while to see if my symptoms subside. I’m excited to try this, I wish myself luck as normally, I feel great but the past few months have been H-E double hockey sticks for me. Thank you for taking the time to write this, and I like your humor interjected as well. Best to you!
I meant "Guinness".
I'm Irish and didn't notice. :)
I went to a bar today and ate some deviled eggs. I drank some Guiness and some Irish whiskey. Since I have a high tolerance for alcohol and was certainly far from drunk, I know that what followed was not the result of drinking. Roughly two hours after eating the eggs, I knew I was going to vomit. I went to the men's room and heaved pretty seriously. I can easily believe that the eggs were not very fresh, so your description of what you went through makes sense to me. I'll have to avoid those eggs in the future. I chose them because I wanted something light to eat.
Wow, it's so nice to know I'm not the only one (sorry). I actually have my own chickens and feed them organic feed, but I've gotten to the point I can no longer eat their eggs. I think it's something in their food, but I will have to experiment. Trader Joe's pastured eggs didn't bother me until recently so I'm not sure why...maybe their food was changed due to the egg shortage??? (Pastured chickens still eat feed, just not as much). Last week I decided to buy TJ's hard boiled eggs...that was a mistake. I've heard duck and quail eggs may be better tolerated but my ducks haven't laid for years. It's frustrating.
This is so interesting. I am wondering if anyone else who has the reaction of back burning, nauseous, stomach pain and explosive diarrhea after an egg containing the yolk has the same reaction to avocados or avocado oil. I ate eggs and avocado my entire life. No problem. Had my first child (1984) and that’s when it all started. I try every few years or accidentally consume something with yolks ( Stouffers Corn Soufflé) or avocado oil ( son in law made an egg white omelette with Avocado oil unknowingly) and darn if my body doesn’t freak out. SO- in the late 80s after all the doctors, barium tests etc my midwife says, well avocado and egg yolk have a certain kind of fat in common and you obviously cannot digest it. She said a number but I have yet to figure that out. Thoughts anyone?
Huh, that's a connection I haven't heard of yet! I eat a lot of avocados with no issues. Anybody else?
@Kim,
Yes after my first child I can not eat eggs without getting very sick. I am wondering if I could eat duck eggs. But I am scared to try! My mother couldn't eat eggs or bananas after having kids. It's just eggs for me. I have no issues with avocados, but I can't eat them if they are even a little bit off. They taste so rancid to me more than others.
WOW !!! i have just read your article and sounds like i wrote it but ive not tried all the eliminations yet ??
Hard boiled eggs no problems..white eggs /brown eggs no problem.
Scrambled eggs /poached eggs/fried eggs and forget it ...its awful?? Takes on minutes before running to the loo !!!
McMuffins from McDonalds dont effect me either they are fine ??
Yup! There's a range of reactions in these hundreds of comments, people being affected in different ways, but it sounds like we have the exact same issue.
So I'm starting to believe it's the diet of the chickens that determine the output of the egg quality. I get sick (really fast) on most store bought eggs from costco, walmart, etc... store doesn't really matter but your run of the mill eggs likely fed a bunch of junk and potentially chemical ridden food. Now I buy EggLands Best eggs and I'm totally fine. They are fed a vegetarian diet with canola oil. I have a soy sensitivity too so I'm wondering if soy is in the basic feed. Also soy is generally heavily sprayed with Roundup. I'm still left guessing as to the culprit like you are. I'm going to try a few different brands and see what happens.
@Neil, Yup! Soy might be the culprit for some of us. We have hens, and our son has a very definite soy intolerance; and if our regular soyless chicken feed is out, the regular brand with soy will make eggs a no-no! for him. Very interesting topic, yet quite scary to realize how many ppl suffer from this...
Thank you for this article! I started having gut issues last fall, minor at first, but turning severe by the holidays. This started shortly after getting COVID, and I know there is a link there, so thought that might be it at first.
It was bad enough that I went to a gastroenterologist about a month ago who ordered a barrage of blood work and stool samples, only to find nothing wrong. My next step was supposed to be some scopes, but I have been feeling better for a couple of weeks, so I was holding off on them.
Then I had eggs today. For the first time in probably a couple of weeks. I usually eat eggs daily but I haven't had them in a while for one reason or another. Then maybe 90 minutes later, bam! I am having some issues to put it nicely.
But why now, I asked myself. After all these years of eating eggs regularly, why now? Well, when egg prices went through the roof a few months ago, I switched to the cheaper, brown Wild Harvest brand. This is only a theory at this point, but it's all I can go off of right now. I will give it a couple of days and then go back to my normal store brand and see what happens.
Thanks for this page!
I just figured it out today at the age of 58. I seem to tolerate scrambled eggs as I make them, but can not eat my (much loved) poached eggs with toast.
I think I am in the must be fully cooked camp.
Symptoms from runny eggs are as you state - icky, bloated, uncomfortable low level nausea for the rest of the day.
Thank u for this. I’ve been getting sick a lot the last 20 years they told me I had crons disease. Three weeks ago my hubby made me one egg bacon and toast the egg was store bought I was so sick for the whole day. Not thinking it was the egg. Last week he made me a farm fresh egg and toast bacon I didn’t get sick. Yesterday I ate a picked store bought egg one piece celery and a few chips I had horrible cramping at 3am I was up sick. I am eliminating store bought eggs to see if that’s my problem.
Good luck!! I've had mixed results with doctors when I've had something wrong that didn't have an obvious cause, but in this particular case, I'm SO grateful to my doctor for pointing me in this direction. I'm so sorry you've been suffering for so long!
SALMONELLA. 206 MILLION eggs were recalled due to salmonella. Hard boiled eggs are safer because the extra heat kills the salmonella. It’s the EGGS, not you. The bacteria gets killed at a 160 + degrees.
So you're saying that every single lightly-scrambled egg I ever ate that made me sick had salmonella, and every single lightly-scrambled egg that didn't make me sick didn't have salmonella? Please check your logic.
Salmonella is a real issue, but it's not what was making me sick.
Rude!
What you consider rude, I consider being responsible. What would be irresponsible is for me to just let somebody make a baseless comment and leave it unanswered, leading other readers to think that it might have some truth to it. Your comment was illogical and not backed up by anything, and I'm pointing that out. You are in my space, and if you say things that I don't think are true I will always say that.
Thank you for sharing your story. I've had a similar experience with eggs my entire life. Unfortunately, I can't eat any type of eggs without experiencing issues. Hopefully I can help some people with their issues.
I've had eggs issues since I was a toddler. My mother told me I use to vomit them up. I avoid them as much as possible. I've had a full panel that came back as egg allergy. My allergist said it's probably due the hormones levels and protein in eggs combined.
My symptoms include intestinal cramping, bloating (I can go from 0-7 months pregnant in an instant), lower back pain, horrible explosive diarrhea, and also a lowered immune system if I continue consuming egg-based products. So, I avoid them.
Anyway, I'll add some tips that might be helpful for people who are allergic to all chicken eggs: When in doubt check labels: ice cream (some have eggs), noodles (I stay away from egg noodles and sub with rotini), check breads and baked good and anything else that is boxed, canned, or packaged, and try to find the vegan version. You can purchase Best Foods vegan mayo and it tastes just as good as egg-based mayo. I substitute vegan mayo, bananas, apple sauce, etc. in recipes that require eggs. I skip the eggs when making pancakes (they come out just as fluffy and tasty without the eggs). If you like blue cheese dressing, you can make it at home with some blue cheese and vegan mayo mixed together. I make every egg-based dressing at home using vegan mayo. If I'm ordering through a drive thru, I get a breakfast sandwich with sausage, cheese, and a side of butter. No eggs for me!
I treat myself about 2-4 times per year to eggs (I love benedict), or if I'm at a wedding or birthday and the cake is too tempting, I'll indulge. I keep Benadryl and Advil in my handbag and simply take one Benadryl before eating the egg-based product. If I start feeling a little upset later on, I take another. I find that this works as well, staying active also helps to burn the egg fuel much quicker.
On the occasion that I do find myself eating an egg-based item, I will only do it on a weekend. This way I can enjoy the relaxing effects of the Benadryl without it negatively impacting my work. One usually does the trick and I'm A-OK. However, if symptoms do come up, they are generally much milder than without the Benadryl. Another Benadryl and a couple of Advil will generally take away these lighter cramps, plus an antacid will limit the bloating.
I hope this helps someone else that is experiencing the same thing I have been dealing with my entire life.
Maybe you guys shouldnt eat eggs,i dont eat eggs,and i try to stay away from foods with eggs in them,i get cramping and runz if i do,now ive noticed some baked goods are ok some are worse then if i just eat eggs,
Hi amy,ive done a little research for you because i thought it sounded fake.that some eggs ok some bad for you.this is what i found.
1 eggs have bacteria and this could be your problem,i saw they reqamend probioics,doubtefull this will help.but u should try it.get 1 with at least 20 billion.
2 i saw that the protiens in eggs are hard for people to absorb,and that some super cooked eggs could be ok.
3 im just gonna help everyone on here.hear me you need to take 4 to 6 fish oil pills if you have any gut problems heres the catch you have to find some that are not rotten,how to tell? Chew 1 if it taste like rotten fish discard.
I have gi problems major and spent like 10 000 hours on the toliet begging god for death.fish oil pills are a antiinflatory nothing works better.
Exsample i eat a cookie today with egg in it. Guts hurting about to have runz i eat 4 fish oil pills went away didnt have to poo .trust me non rotten fish oil pills 4 to 6 when you eat eggs will prolly make this go away.make sure to chew 1.dont trust any store.at least half are rotten.
Peace and blessings .
While I appreciate you commenting, I've already found a solution that works really well for me. Perhaps someone else will get something out of it, but honestly your comments about rotten fish oil pills probably aren't going to convince anyone to take them.
I've noticed recently I get sick to my stomach after eating hard boiled eggs bloated, nauseous just icky. But I can eat fried and scrambled eggs, i can eat desserts and pastas made with eggs and I am ok. After eating a hard boiled egg (just 1) within mins I am sick. It's weird since I've read most people are ok with hard boiled eggs but they get sick with scrambled and fried
I have the same issue as you—even the back pain as a symptom of allergic reaction. I also have issues with whole grains, especially whole wheat, IBS, and massive histamine intolerance, so nothing fermented or old for me. I will break out in rashes and hives. Needless to say, I have to be very careful about what I eat.
For some reason the white eggs make me sick. Even the smell of them frying in the pan makes me nauseous. I can smell the sulfur. My husband can’t, but I sure can. I have found that I can tolerate brown eggs just fine if they are cooked well. I can tolerate duck eggs as well. It’s just something about those white chicken eggs. Finally I just started raising my own poultry. Fresh eggs every day and I never get sick.
@Shay G,
I’m feeling the same way…as a kid eggs cooked by themselves always made me nauseous. Only until an adult could I eat eggs alone (no problem in breads etc), and that started with buying EB eggs…. Something in EBs must be different because I have no problem with EBS.
But this week I’m eating these super healthy free range brown eggs from BJs and I’m back to feeling nauseous again. First nausea, then gassy then abdominal pains. … I can’t figure it out. I am allergic to sulphuric based antibiotics but I think that’s a different sulfur allergy.
@Shay G, Hello Shay,
You mentioned wheat intolerance. That can be part of something else called fodmap intolerance. It is foods that contain certain sugars that don’t break down well in the small intestines causing upper stomach and back pain.
The food are an unbelievable mix, wheat, watermelon, onions, beans, blackberrys, asparagus and many more. Look up FODMAP for a list of low and high foods.
That may help.