Feeding marigolds to laying hens could improve long-term eye health in humans, says a University of Guelph researcher.
Steve Leeson of the university’s department of animal and poultry science is in the second year of a three-year study examining the effects of increased lutein, a pigment found in marigolds.
Lutein, which is also found in eggs, spinach and broccoli, is believed to help prevent cataracts and macular degeneration in humans. Those eye conditions affect 30 percent of people older than 60.
Leeson said finding ways to bolster the lutein content of an egg seemed a natural choice for his research.
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“Most people eat it anyway,” said Leeson, who noted lutein is absorbed by the body more readily from an egg than a pill.
The average Canadian eats 200 eggs a year, including those added to recipes and processed foods.
An egg now contains less than one milligram of lutein, but Leeson would like to increase that to two. Humans require six to eight mg daily but most get less than one.
“The more lutein you take in, the healthier you’ll be,” he said, noting that no ill effects from increased lutein have been documented in fowl or humans.
In Leeson’s research, a half-pound of the active ingredient is added to a tonne of chicken feed.
Marigolds used in the chicken feed are grown, dried and ground in Mexico before being exported for use as a pigment around the world.
Leeson noted many countries already use the pigment to give their eggs a richer colour. On a colour scale from one to 15, an egg yolk in Canora, Sask., gets about a four ranking, compared to 10 in Tijuana, Mexico and 12 in Voiron, France.
He called the lutein-enhanced product the coming decade’s next designer egg, following in the footsteps of the omega 3 egg.
The omega 3 egg, a product of chickens fed feed containing flaxseed that hit the marketplace in 1996, now accounts for five percent of Canada’s egg market.
