My mum used to always have a seperate pot she used for boiling eggs
only, cos she said that the shells were poisonous and shouldn't be
mixed with any other foods. My wife, on the other hand will boil eggs
and veges in the same pot at the same time. Is there any poison or
toxin in egg shells that would suggest having a seperate pot to always
boil them in?

Dear musicdeals-ga;

Thank you for allowing me an opportunity to answer your interesting question.

Other than the potential trauma that sharp, jagged eggshells might
pose to the digestive tract, they otherwise pose no toxic threat. As
seen in this brief discussion, some people with the eating disorder
Pica compulsively consume odd forms of non-nutritional substances and
occasionally this includes eggshells. It certainly isn?t wise to eat
eggs shells but the fact remains that they are not poisonous:


MASTERING STRESS
?Pica. I keep eating eggshells. Why??
http://www.medhelp.org/forums/MentalHealth/messages/30897a.html

Eggs shells are porous. Some time ago people believed that if an egg
was bad boiling it with other edibles would ruin the entire pot. While
this might be true of the egg were to burst and contaminate the pot
with salmonella or the like, the high temperature of the water would
probably be enough to keep an intact egg sterile.

On the other hand, since eggs shells are porous, it would not be
impossible to taint the eggs with something else thrown into the pot.
Not just from a bacterial standpoint but also from a flavor standpoint
as well.

Finally, eggs (especially the homegrown variety, since cleaning
methods are less stringent that industrial methods) are inherently
nasty. The surface of the eggs can retain feces, residue from flies
and other insects, and host of other barnyard filth in the pores of
the shell ? even though they are washed or inspected. Boiling eggs
with other edibles is a thoroughly distasteful prospect (no pun
intended) even though it probably would not harm you due to the
sterilization of the boiling water. The common sense logic that a
rolling boil would dislodge disgusting particles into the mix is
probably an unpalatable concept to most people.

Nope ? chicken eggs shells are not poisonous ? but they are sometimes
VERY gross. That?s why Mother knows best.

I hope you find that my research exceeds your expectations. If you
have any questions about my research please post a clarification
request prior to rating the answer. Otherwise, I welcome your rating
and your final comments and I look forward to working with you again
in the near future. Thank you for bringing your question to us.

Best regards;
Tutuzdad ? Google Answers Researcher


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Eggs

Chicken

Poison

Poisoning

Poisonous

Shells

Toxic

Dangerous

Contaminate

Well, eggs do come out of a chicken's butt.

But you should learn to ignore most of what your mother told you. 
You'll be a much happier adult.

I used to work in a plant that produced vitamin tablets. Some of the
raw, for some of our calcium products, we actually used crushed
eggshells in the mix. Look on a bottle of calcium suppliments and many
times you will see that there is actually eggshells in them.