Eggs are all they are cracked up to be

by Denny Banister

Eggs contain cholesterol. Because of this fact, some food cops a number of years ago spread the message egg consumption was unhealthy, increasing the risk of heart attack and stroke.

Certain vegetarian groups joined in the egg fight. Most vegetarians are good eggs, but some of them are hard boiled with an agenda to force their vegetarian lifestyle on everyone else.

Lower on the pecking order of egg beaters are the animal rights groups. They are not concerned with health aspects of animal foods – they think it is unethical for humans to consume animal foods, and consider taking eggs from hens as stealing. I think their logic is scrambled, and I’m not too chicken to say it – WE DO NOT POACH EGGS.

Far be it from me to pretend to be a nutrition and health authority. I regularly put my foot in my mouth, and do not need to make things worse by getting egg on my face as well. While I am not an egghead, I am not eggnorent – while I am not cocky, I am not yellow. I reported the accusations against eggs were half-baked at best.

The eggcusers told Americans to eat no more than one or two eggs a week, even less if we consumed foods using eggs as an ingredient. We were even advised by these so called eggsperts to limit egg consumption to egg whites only – that’s no yolk!

Egg’s Benedict Arnolds in the media regularly fried eggs in radio and television news reports, and on newspaper’s front pages – many did no egg checks for accuracy, and Americans developed rotten egg attitudes. The food cops, vegetarians and animal rights extremists competed for media attention in what became a real egg sucking contest. Even Easter egg hunts were on the verge of becoming witch hunts.

The negative image did not turn over easy, but eventually there was a sunny-side-up for eggs. Scientific studies hatched showing cholesterol in eggs had little effect on blood serum cholesterol in people. Other research gave eggs a Grade A by confirming eggs were all they were cracked up to be – nature’s most complete protein.

At first, the turn around in egg consumption was soft boiled, but soon egg plants were back in business. Nutritionists came out of their shell and began recommending more consumption of eggs, from two eggs a week to two eggs a day – it was eggciting, a real egg roll.

The American egg production industry had a great fall, but unlike Humpty Dumpty they were able to put it together again. Unfortunately many consumers spent years not enjoying the health benefits from eating eggs, and many farmers in the egg production business went bankrupt.

So the next time you hear accusations a certain food is not good for you, and chances are you won’t have to wait long, consider – eggzactly – the incredible, edible egg.

[Editor’s note: For his remarkable newspaper commentary about the health benefits of eggs, Mr. Banister is being nominated by the egg and poultry industry for the coveted Pullet Surprise.]

(Denny Banister of Jefferson City, Mo., is assistant director of information and public relations for the Missouri Farm Bureau, the state’s largest farm organization.)