by Maria C Collins

Created on: February 17, 2009

For sheer versatility, eggs are an ingredient essential to cookery. They can be a quick dish or a more elaborate one, a breakfast, lunch or dinner or just a snack can be added to a sauce, used for mayonnaise or baked in a cake, raw egg brushed on pastry before it is cooked gives a lovely color. They are also a healthy choice to include in a balanced diet.

The United Kingdom Ministry of Health has finally rescinded the advice that it has been giving since the nineteen seventies, and admitted that the science had been wrong. Eggs were not full of harmful cholesterol and that, far from being bad unhealthy, eggs are a good low-calorie source of protein that includes many of the vitamins and minerals essential for human health.

Eggs got a very bad reputation in the seventies when a scientist mistakenly decided that they contained far too much cholesterol to be healthy. Trouble was he misplaced a decimal point and no one ever checked his math but blindly gave out the same advice. The Ministry of health in the UK has been advising the population since then that one should eat no more than three eggs per week. Many people gave up their breakfast egg and switched to breakfast cereal, given what we now know, they might have been better staying with eggs for breakfast.

Protein, necessary for building muscle and helping the body to burn fat, is not the only good thing found in eggs. There also lots of vitamins in eggs, such as the B vitamins especially B2 riboflavin and B12. Egg yolk is one of the few food sources of vitamin D which is currently the subject of much research because scientists believe that it may do much more than help the body to absorb the calcium (necessary for healthy bones and teeth) than they previously believed. Eggs are also a source of vitamin A, which helps with eyesight and skin. Research has shown that people who eat eggs regularly have a reduced risk of developing cataracts.

Minerals and trace elements are also found in eggs such as phosphorus, iodine, selenium, which may help with memory and the nervous system, iron and zinc.

Eggs are low in saturated fats and are an excellent food for all the family. In the hurly burly of family life a quick and nourishing meal is sometimes needed eggs can be a very quick dish. It takes a couple of minutes to boil, poach, fry or scramble some eggs.

Successive studies have shown that children who eat a good breakfast learn better eggs make an excellent breakfast and most children enjoy eggs. The eating of eggs causes a slow release of energy in the body.

For Dieters eggs are a godsend, there are 80 calories in a medium sized egg and they are low in fat, they are also quite filling. Research from St Louis University in the United States showed that people who ate eggs for breakfast consumed 264 less calories per day than those who did not.

Eggs are a versatile and inexpensive food, which can be used as a main ingredient for a meal, or as an ingredient to display other ingredients. In baking, through the magic of chemistry, eggs raise cakes and souffls. Eggs can be a snack or a more elaborate meal. Egg dishes can be served at breakfast lunch or dinner. They are an inexpensive source of protein, vitamins and minerals. They are available all the year. Best of all, they are good to eat, what could be better than eggs and bacon?

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