Thursday, January 13, 2005
In any case, the very idea of an egg endangering health was implausible. Eggs were the nutritionists' darling. The egg is packed with good things. It has the highest quality protein of all foods and is the source of eleven essential nutrients and fifteen important vitamins and minerals. They include B vitamin folate, which has been found to reduce birth defects, carotenoids (lutein and xanthophyll) that may reduce the risk of cataracts and macular degeneration, and half the required daily dose of choline required to protect memory. Of the 5 grams of fat in an egg, only 1.5 comprise saturated fat, the fat fingered as harmful to the heart, which makes eggs positively virtuous. An egg, moreover, is as slimming as a bottle of vitamins: it contains only seventy calories. An egg does lack vitamin C, but that can be added with a glass of orange juice, a staple of the American diet...
In the early 1970s, out of the blue, the American Heart Association declared the egg a threat to the heart. The egg contained 278 milligrams of cholesterol, and food scientists had just decreed that no one should consume more than 300 milligrams of cholesterol a day...When I learned this, I thought of course that the scientists, being scientists, had arrived at a safe level of dietary cholesterol through proof. How wrong I was...[in 1968] a group of food scientists got together and hashed over the idea of setting a safe cholesterol standard. Some thought the whole idea unnecessary, but others were adamant. So the debate went back and forth, and finally a compromise was reached. The average human intake of cholesterol is 580 milligrams (per liter of blood) a day, so let's just halve that. Make it 300 milligrams...So, overnight, as it were, and on the basis of an arbitrary calculation, the egg was in trouble, deep trouble.
-- Gina Mallet, Last Chance to Eat
Dear friends at NY1:
It's not that I mind that you devoted editorial air time to what turned out to be, basically, an advertisement for the Pump Energy Food restaurant chain. I've never eaten at the Pump, but based on what I saw on your report, they do at least make an effort to use whole foods, and prepare them carefully. I think they may be a bit stricter than they need to be on the whole salting-the-food issue, but considering how much some restaurants oversalt their food, I will allow that this might be a good thing -- and if it isn't, hell, I'll bring my own salt. Likewise, I'm not going to eat nonfat mozzarella any time soon, but I'll grant them that it wouldn't kill me to watch my butter intake. And certainly, if I bought more lunches from the Pump and fewer from the Daisy May cart on 47th Street, I would be healthier for it, and maybe I would lose my ass just a little faster.
I understand it all, even if I don't agree with it all, and I know that you have to get their message across in a short time slot, as concisely and efficiently as possible. I just wish, though, that you could have resisted the temptation to insert this little nugget of information into your copy:
Everything on the menu is baked, not fried; no salt or sugar is added; and egg yolks and soda are strictly off limits. (Emphasis mine. -- Jen)
It has been almost six years since the Hu-Willett study, conducted under the auspices of the Harvard School of Public Health and the National Institutes of Health, concluded that there was no link between the dietary cholesterol found in eggs and an increased risk of heart disease, and yet we are still so frightened of egg yolks, and the fat and cholesterol contained in them, that we are willing to jettison the healthiest part of the egg. Those nifty vitamins and minerals, those carotenoids that may protect us against cataracts and macular degeneration, that choline that may protect our memory, all of these are found in the yolk. The white, being pure protein, has none of these. And yet, we have restaurants that brag about not serving egg yolks. We have health reporters on local news stations mentioning these lovely little yolks in the same breath as soda, which, last I checked, did not contain any vitamins or minerals or anything to keep you alive but sugar -- excuse me, I mean high-fructose corn syrup. I'm trying to find words for how baffling and sad I find this, but all I can come up with is, well, nothing.
A postscript, to the guys with whom I stand in line at the deli for our breakfast sandwiches: If you are trying to watch your fat intake, then what is the point of ordering an egg white and sausage sandwich, or an egg white and cheese sandwich? (Or even the triple-dog-dare version, the egg white + cheese + sausage sandwich?) Do you really think that you are doing yourself any favors by skipping the yolks and then filling the vacuum with cheese? Do you really like the taste of egg whites? What do you get from these sandwiches? I'm not being food-snobby, or a crank. I am genuinely confused. I genuinely want to know.
I am so looking forward to the release of your egg book (which will hopefully be followed by one on cardamom).
I couldn’t eat eggs minus yolk, the yolk is the best part. Hard boiled, soft boiled, scrambled, fried (but over hard, because I just can’t do runny yolk), any way you cook it, I must have the yolk.
Great post! I ate a DELICIOUS bacon and egg sandwich as I was reading it, and thought of two things:
1. Since I was a kid, my parents have eaten egg whites and margarine, convinced that both are better for them. Shame, isn’t it?
2. If eggs are so “bad”, why does Weight Watchers only assign them 2 points (hard boiled)? Cheese in the same amount is 4 points. I’m all for the whole egg diet!
Unlike AK, I love a perfect, gently poached egg: white set but not hard, yolk liquid golden yumminess. A good grind of black pepper and some buttered toast - or, gilding the lily, hollandaise, an english muffin and whatever - and I am a happy girl.
I’m still trying to work out the mechanics of producing that perfect poached egg. Any tips, dear Bakerina?
Okay, you may not be a food snob or a crank but I am both so I can say it +1 succinct while you have to pad it with all kinds of beautiful words.
HEY, YOU DUMB FUCKS, GET A CLUE!!!
At the risk of sounding like a broken record: Moderation + less processed tasty foods grown and treated with fewer unpronouncable chemicals + exercise = health & happiness.
Eggs without yolks are freaking pointless. Where is the joy? And we NEED those nutrients from the yolk. I chart my nutrtition every day, and I generally find that I’m missing fat-soluble vitamins at the end of the day if I haven’t had an egg.
Mmmmmmmm, soft-boiled eggs with a little salt and pepper. Mmmmmmmmmmm.
Oh, and that was very well said, Jen. Very. But you don’t need me to tell you that.
It’s nice to know that even as we have our own opinions on what constitutes the perfect egg, we all agree on the yolk issue. And I’m glad to see that I’m not alone on this. 
Kimberly, I think it will take me my whole life to perfect a poached egg. It’s like the quest for the Holy Grail: you can’t have knowledge of the Grail and live. So it is with poached eggs. Each one I make is better than the last, but it could always be improved upon. I do my poached eggs in a small, shallow Le Creuset skillet. I bring about 1 1/2” - 2” of water to a gentle boil, throw in about a tablespoon of rice vinegar, break the eggs into a saucer (one at a time) and slide them into the water, and then baste the eggs with a ladle so that eventually you see that pale filmy veil over the yolk. I wish I could give you poaching times, but I find they vary a lot depending on the size of the egg. Basically, when it looks like something I’d want to eat—firm but pliant white, jiggling yolk, and the area around the white completely cooked—it’s time to take them out. Et voila.
‘mouse, honey, correct me if I’m wrong, but I’m sensing a little impatience here. Would you like to share with the group? 
The Pump sucks. I ate there once, I had a lemon chicken salad. I think it consisted of romaine and a couple mixed greens with some really bland chicken breast and some lemon squeezed over the top. If I wanted to punish myself with food, I could’ve made that at home!
Beware Flying Egg Disks!
this is the sticker i feel i should equip myself with due to the inability of most drive-thru kids to recognize and comprehend the phrase ‘no egg’, ‘hold the egg’. and since reading more Pie, i am flat out scared of ‘chiffon’. tho i cherish a good golden yellow yolk to stab my toast into. such conflict. such desire. remember that health class assignment, carrying the egg around in a tissue box. well, i don’t mean to brag, but often mine was the only one left intact in the end.
Thank you so much for the info on Mariebelle! I will be going there this weekend!!
Thanks for bringing up the egg yolk issue. I’ve been on many diets that restricted them & had to eat many egg white omelets. To get an egg white omelet to taste good or just taste like anything, for that matter, you have to add so much cheese & butter that it just is useless. So, now I eat the entire egg! My cholesterol has not gone up & I’m full for so much longer & I swear, my butt has gotten smaller since I stopped eating just egg whites!
Those who abstain from eggs may well be those who have coffee w/sweet ‘n low along with their chocolate fudge cake. The egg-whites-with-cheese concept has a lot to do with a person saying, I’m depriving myself of one thing, so I’ll treat myself to another. It’s a mind game, and no logic applies. What does apply is the amusement factor for those watching—my dad used to make sausages and scrambled EggBeaters. Go figure.
Bravo! Great post! Also, I agree WHOLEHEARTEDLY with Mouse’s equation for health and happiness. I’d like to mention that my great-grandma lived to be 101 and eggs with bacon were a daily part of her breakfast routine. Good genes or healthy lifestyle? Maybe both.
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I am so looking forward to the release of your egg book (which will hopefully be followed by one on cardamom).