by Olwen Anderson

Created on: May 16, 2009   Last Updated: January 05, 2012

Take an imaginary walk in the early morning sun, across the dewy grass towards your chicken coop. You can hear your hens gently clucking to one another. Quietly you put your hand into their nest to find a clutch of freshly laid, still warm eggs. What a wonderful healthy meal those eggs will make for you.

Well, at least that's how most of us would like to collect our eggs. The reality is that we usually buy our eggs from the store, and discover them when we open the fridge door pondering what to cook for this meal. Eggs can easily become the basis for a very sustaining and healthy meal, as when you enjoy an egg you're actually eating a nutritional wonder package.

Eggs are one of the most complete foods you can eat. Most of us will thrive on the high quality protein they contain, as well as their wealth of essential vitamins and minerals. It seems surprising that just their high cholesterol level gave them a very undeserved bad reputation. The fact is that we can all enjoy eggs, in moderation, like every other high quality natural food.

Children especially benefit from the concentrated nutrition of eggs; they can appeal to almost the pickiest eater with the tiniest appetite. Try offering soft boiled eggs with buttered toast soldiers that can be dipped into the yolk. Or soft scrambled eggs.

PACKED WITH PROTEIN

Each egg contains around 6g of protein; but even better, the protein is complete in all the essential amino acids, and is the most easily absorbed form of protein. This makes it ideal for elderly people, who often lack adequate digestible protein sources in their diet.

CHOLESTEROL, YES - BUT ITS OK

Eggs have received some bad press in the last few decades, including an unfair reputation for boosting cholesterol levels that could lead to clogged arteries and heart attacks. Yes, eggs do contain a large amount of cholesterol - about 270mg each - but they also contain lecithin in the yolk, which helps your body emulsify the cholesterol and digest it effectively.

Lecithin also helps build the protective myelin sheath on your nerve cells; so with each egg you're becoming less prone to degenerative nerve diseases as you age.

ENOUGH VITAMINS AND MINERALS TO START A NEW LIFE

Each egg contains all the raw materials to transform that yolk and white into a new baby chicken. Each egg supplies a vast range of vitamins and minerals - the iron, zinc, calcium, magnesium, and all the B group vitamins, all essential to life. Most of these nutrients are in the yolk, as the

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