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Health August 2012

Eat Right Now

Crack One Open

By Wendell Fowler

Despite its bad rap, cholesterol is quite essential to many important functions of the earth suit. The American Heart Association has amended its guidelines on eggs! There is "no longer a specific recommendation on the number of egg yolks a person may consume in a week."

"This recipe is certainly silly. It says separate two eggs, but it doesn't say how far to separate them."-- Gracie Allen

It a fowl proposition, but are demonized eggs all they're cracked up to be? As a grateful survivor of heart disease, I've avoided eggs, the symbol of life, a new beginning, and fertility, since one egg contains the daily limit of 250 to 300 mg of cholesterol.

Whoa, let's back up the old egg cart. Do eggs build up excess cholesterol, or is inflammation to blame for high cholesterol levels? Or maybe it's not the egg but the hog-wild, supersized consumption of pork sausage gravy, unctuous bacon, salty ham, lard-o-licious hash browns, and petite trans-fat coffee creamers of death accompanying the noble egg that clog arteries with plaque?

Wouldn't it be cool to shake the brave hand of the first hungry human who, after observing a chicken strutting around and then squirting out beige objects, remarked, "Hey, let's eat one of those!"

An Egyptian legend says the egg was created from the sun and the moon. Egg consumption in Western civilization was documented in Roman times and appeared in French and English cookbooks in the 1400s. In the mid-19th century chickens became popular in Europe and America. In China, the barn fowl is described as "the domestic animal who knows time." Historians believe the first chickens related to today's egg layers, were brought to America by Columbus.

Our intelligent Holy Temple produces the cholesterol it needs, so we needn't snarf additional. That's where things get scrambled. Despite its bad rap, cholesterol is quite essential to many important functions of the earth suit. The American Heart Association has amended its guidelines on eggs! There is "no longer a specific recommendation on the number of egg yolks a person may consume in a week."

In the other nesting box, if your blood cholesterol is high, have other risk factors for heart disease, or already have heart disease, drop the egg, bub, and prepare some steel-cut oats or local, protein-rich egg whites for breakfast. I'm a dumb cluck for dissing nature's most nutritious foods, but today I see them otherwise. Local eggs from family farms are infinitely more nutritious and clean.

The 70-calorie "cackle berry," restaurant jargon for the sound of a frying egg, is rich in protein, riboflavin, niacin, iron, and vitamins D, A, B12, and K, but eggs also contain lutein and zeaxanthin, required for healthy eyes. Eggs contain biotin, a member of the vitamin B complex (vitamin H). A deficiency of H can cause dermatitis, dementia, loss of hair, and, occasionally, brittle nails.

Some good eggs are fortified with Omega 3 EFAs. Our Holy Temple cannot produce essential fatty acids; therefore, they must be consumed. As a 23-year vegetarian, I get my EFAs from flax seed and flax seed oil. Fish oil is best.

When someone brusquely suggests you "Go suck an egg," cook it first. Salmonella lurks in a small but unpredictable percentage of raw eggs and can be fatal to infants and those older than 65 with weakened immune response.

Scrambled, poached, deviled, basted, boiled, Caesared, souffled -- eat them fresh and in moderation.. Grocery eggs can stay in a warehouse for up to six weeks and longer. Please stimulate your local economy by purchasing eggs from a community organic-egg family farm. All established farmers market will have delicious local fresh eggs.

Eggs-istentialist Foghorn Leghorn, president of the LLU, (Local Layers Union) stutters, "Well, I say, I say, this is certainly great news for America's 240 million exhausted layers producing 5.5 billion dozen eggs per year." You won't get pecked to death when you eat local. Instead you'll cluck in delight.

 

Chef Wendell hosts Eat Right Now on WISH TV 8 CBS Indianapolis. He can be reached at 317-372-2592 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Visit his website at Chefwendell.com.

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