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!
I'm not sure if I'm correct but most eggs contain salmonella which is more toxic to people with sensitive stomachs but salmonella is destroyed if egg is well cooked like hard boiled or pasteurized.
I have a sensitive stomach and suffer from eggs not well cooked and also reflux with any form of spice. I have cut out both soft eggs and spice and have no further problems
Thanks
Trev NZ
While it's true that heat kills salmonella, salmonella in/on eggs is rare, according to the CDC.
Great article. I have discovered I have an intolerance to corn. Anything with Xantham gum, corn syrup etc then I figured it out with the chickens and eggs. If they chickens are fed a corn diet I get the IBS symptoms but the pasture raised no hormones, antibiotics etc then I have no issues. Did not think about the method of cooking can also attribute to it as I can eat breads, and desserts with eggs.
That's a fascinating piece of the puzzle! I guess we're eating what our food eats.
Excellent article. I had figured out that I am fine with organic eggs but wanted to understand why after accidentally eating egg tagliatelle and getting sick.
But you said you cracked the code - I read the whole thing for nothing?!
But, for me, it has to do with boiled eggs. I can eat scrambled, sunny side up, over easy, omelette, baked egg cups, soft boiled eggs...even battered food, backed goods and so on.
But let me eat 2 or more medium or hard boiled eggs and very soon after, I belch sulfur gas and expel extremely warm (as in the temperature) gas that smells like methane swamp gas. And I eat store bought eggs, so they range from old to young. But, I do not get "sick" in other respects.
I'm sorry you feel you wasted your time. Not sure why you wasted more leaving a comment then.
As you can see from the hundreds of comments on this post, I have cracked the code for many other people besides myself, and many others have different issues. I hope you find a solution.
After a week of feeling like I’m dying and thinking it was some other foods, I realized that I have this issue. I have been eating range free brown eggs for very a long time with no issue. We started buying cheaper white eggs due to budget constraints and I started getting very sick after about 2 weeks. It didn’t start right away.
I think it’s due to the chickens, their food, maybe any shots they get more than the eggs themselves. I just ate some plain eggs and have a headache, feel nauseous and have a metallic taste in my mouth. I’ve eaten white eggs my entire life for the most part, I’m now 44, and have this issue after all these years? It’s definitely the changes that are happening with our food supply.
So glad to have found your article on egg intolerance…it has taken me years to figure this out and thanks to you I believe I now know what the problem is. I do not eat eggs every single day but do have them for breakfast quite often. This week I had more eggs than normal and noticed about 5 mins after eating I feel nauseous..a little lower back ache and running to the bathroom a couple times. I decided to search for “issues after eating egg”. I knew it had to be the egg..I look back at eating breakfast out and always have to be near a bathroom after eating..I always have an egg over medium. When you mentioned the brain fog and sometimes tiredness I can relate…I will definitely be trying the process of eliminating eggs, or at least certain ones. Thank you again!
Diane Barnhart
Oklahoma City, Ok.
I am so happy I found your article, Amy! I have been experiencing this my whole life and I'm 55 now. Over the years I too have experimented with eggs in many ways, like an egg bath for breading chicken, or in desserts and when they are used that way, I have no issue. But omelets, scrambled eggs, deviled eggs, hard boiled, they all give me stomach pains. I thought I was OK with egg whites and have been eating egg white bites every morning for months now and I have been feeling sick every morning. The days I don't eat them, I have no issues.
It makes me so sad, I like eggs, why don't they like me back? Anything with egg yolks in them crushes me, hollandaise sauce, bearnaise sauce, Cesar salad dressings that use eggs. I haven't had eggs benedict in decades and I really miss that! I have similar reactions with red, yellow and green peppers, especially raw or al dente, as well as with eating too many peanuts.
I'm very glad to know that I'm not alone, although I'm sad that so many of you suffer as well. I now want to try a very fresh egg omelet to see how I would handle that.
On another note, I have a daughter with an autoimmune disorder and she is not allowed to eat any eggs that are cooked in a pan, only baked. Our functional medicine doctor explained that for many people with digestive issues, baking the eggs is much easier on the stomach. She also can only eat eggs once every 4 days and since we've been doing that, she hasn't had any adverse reactions to the eggs, even with the yolks. We use both store bought eggs and eggs from neighbor's chickens in our neighborhood. I hadn't thought of experimenting between those versions, but I will now.
thanks so much for putting this post out there! :)
The only egg that a person should eat is a free range fresh egg. Yes, you'll pay a bit more (the price of one cup of coffee more?) but battery hen eggs are immoral and have very little nutrition.
I am really surprised at how much lowgrade food you eat. Rule number on for healthy eating is to use fresh ingedients and cook it yourself. (I would not feed Macdonals to my dog!)
And I'm really surprised that you think I care about some rando's opinion.
I have found with farm fresh living life the right way duck eggs that I have the same problem as you mentioned in this article. The first time I felt general malaise for 4 hours. I wanted to use the restroom and be done but that wasn’t going to happen yet.
The next time I mixed it with two chicken eggs and I felt a little malaise happening in my gut but not as bad. So I decided to not eat them. I ended up giving them away.
About a year later, I ate 2-3 duck eggs before bed and I wasn’t able to fall asleep for 5 hours and I felt so horrible.
I read that if people have a problem with soy & ducks might eat soy or grains the person eating the eggs could have a cross over.
I also found out that duck eggs & chicken eggs have tryptophan. So for example, I enjoy eating chicken eggs. When I was little I’d eat them with veggies and I’d have terrible gas always. Fast forward to mid 30’s, I discovered that I can eat eggs by themselves and zero flatulence so I don’t eat them with other foods except meat.
However, if I eat eggs more than 3 without other foods, I get extremely sleepy and the good thing is it don’t feel that malaise like I do with the duck eggs.
So if I want more than 2-3 eggs, I always eat some type of beef with it so I don’t feel like I need a nap.
I have found that farm fresh chicken eggs I tend to have more of a liking to them than the store bought ones. The store bought cheap eggs even if they are organic eat grains and eating them fresh from the farm you get to know what their diet is and they eat more worms and bugs.
Baked in items - any eggs from chickens don’t bother me. But I’m not ready to be sick again with duck eggs so I won’t be trying them baked.
I hope this helps someone and thank you for the article! Very helpful.
Me too, exactly. Some very cheap eggs, always fine, some pricey eggs not. Concur, freshness and sulfer seem key. I get a similar reaction taking msm which acts similar to high sulfur foods as I vaguely understand it. I had cut out eggs for years, bur now I eat soft eggs daily having found brands and stores I can trust, some very cheap, some higher end. Omega 3 eggs so far are totally off limits.
I also ate eggs as far back as I can remember, until after I had my daughter at 41yrs in 1992. We had gone to a "PowWow" and after it was over, several of us went out to eat a late night breakfast at the Hot Biscuit in Texas. I always thought the nausea was a psychological association to the eggs caused after seeing a fingerprint in the grease on the rim of the plate. I got curious and found your article. I loved fried eggs in stick margarine until the edges got crispy or scrambled eggs with picante sauce. From that night in 1993 forward I can only eat eggs in baked goods and occasionally a deviled egg. Every once in a long while I'll try a scrambled egg and the nausea slowly finds it's way back. I raised 2 hens for just their eggs, but never tried cooking one for myself, but my husband loved them and I cooked with them. I'm so glad I found your article and will definitely try the pasteurized liquid eggs. If you are on YouTube, maybe you should bring this up there. I wanted to say that I was researching different chemicals used for rat and rodent baits (the "K vitamin" bait) and ran across chemicals in them that were used by the food industry, but never knew they were actually sprayed on the eggs, as commented on earlier. Once again Thank You So Much.
You're very welcome! And man, that's a long time to go without eggs.
I should make a video, thank you for the reminder. I haven't been doing much on YouTube in the past few years but I should get back to it.
I've eaten eggs my whole life with no issue but I noticed the last few years, that sometimes they hurt me. It's usually boiled eggs that seem to effect me the most. I don't eat them that often but enjoy them with a salad from time to time or as a snack. Some days, a few hours after eating hard boiled eggs, I get most of the symptoms you mentioned, especially the stomach cramping and befriending the toilet. I feel nauseaus but never vomit (usually kicks in about 4-5 hours later) but other days after eating them, I'm absolutely fine. I seem to be fine with poached, fried or scrambled. I also seem to be fine with baked goods, ommelettes and quiche. Egg-based batters don't seem to bother me, either. I buy free range, as fresh as I can find on the shelf and store them in the fridge (even though I don't need to in my country). I've been trying to work out why some eggs ruin me and others don't and I'm still at a loss. It just seems so random but it's definitely the eggs because I can eat the other foods I usually eat with eggs - on their own - and I'm fine. I've wondered if I might have a slight intolerance to sulpher, I've also wondered if it's linked to getting older/peri-menopause? perhaps they're too rich in something for me? I guess I'll continue to play Russian roulette for now and hope for the best.
I'd like to point out - in the west, esp in factory situations, they use pesticides on the eggs and that's after they've scrubbed off the protective layer. A lot of your symptoms sound like poisoning. Factories use it, some small farms do, some don't. If they do they may not scrub off the protective layer the egg naturally has, but that means if they don't clean the eggs properly enough before distribution than the fungicide is still on them. Most people don't refrigerate eggs because it's unnecessary. Eggs have a natural protective layer on the shell to protect it until it's broken, but in the US they scrub the crap out of it then cover it in fungicide which is why it needs to be refrigerated afterwards. Meanwhile, anything you get from fast food is so highly processed, you really can't even classify it as food anymore.
I have immediately vomited after eating scrambled eggs the last 3or 4 times I have eaten them. I have autoimmunity issues so I always thought some of my symptoms were because of that but. Now I’m going to pay attention and see if things seem to be worse on days I eat eggs. It seems like I am able to eat them over easy but at this point I’m ready to give them all up and start my experiment. Thank you so much for writing about this!!
@Angelica L, I also vomit immediately after eating eggs! Hard boiled eggs are better but I feel nauseous and unwell for several hours. I don’t eat eggs at all anymore. There are better ways to get enough protein than eggs.