FOOD FOR THOUGHT: The One and Only Egg

For better or for worse I have always been the type of person who likes to ponder things (some may erroneously mistake this as daydreaming). Readers of this column may already realize this personal trait of mine, and luckily I am able to share some of these musings publicly. The aforementioned said, one such subject that I have considered in the past-and at some length-is the question of the ubiquitous egg. More specifically, the aged old question as to which came first-the chicken or the egg.

At first thought the answer seems obvious: of course it was the egg. After all, the original chicken had to hatch from something. But then there's the question of what actually laid that first egg. Supposedly, if you trace back the heritage of an egg in your refrigerator it would be something like this: this egg was born of a chicken which was hatched from an egg which was born of a chicken which was hatched from an egg and so on. It would eventually be traced back through some bizarre evolutionary channel until it would reach some sort of an ancestral chicken-type animal that was not born of an egg at all, but more likely through a series of cell divisions and conglomerations, which would actually make the chicken first. An egg, of course, could not simple appear out of thin air, unless it was originally created through a series of cell divisions...which, in that case, would make the egg first.

With many cultures and religions the topic of the original egg is a serious subject. A devout Christian, of course, would not abide by the evolutionary theory, but by that of creation. Specifically, the Bible (Genesis 1:19-20) states that fish and fowl were created on the fourth day. This suggests that it was the chicken that came first. And some ancient cultures based their very existence on an egg -- a very big egg, in fact.

The ancient Phoenicians, for example, believed that it was a primeval egg that split open and formed the earth and heavens above, and certain Native Americans believe the earth was created by the Great Spirit which, herself, had burst forth from a giant egg. (Interestingly, many believe that the type of egg-laying fowl that we now know was introduced to North America through Columbus, during his early explorations in the fifteenth century.) The Egyptians, on the other hand, believed that their God, Ptah, used the sun and the moon to create the egg, which in there eyes clearly states it was the egg that came first.

The egg has even found its way into the modern day English language. A person that is known for their intellect is sometimes be call an "egghead," and to "egg someone on" is to incite some sort of action, often an argument; and depending on how a person is viewed they can either be called a good or bad egg, or even worse, a rotten egg. And whatever you do don't "put all your eggs in one basket."

In recent years eggs have acquired somewhat of a bad reputation because of their cholesterol content. While it is true the yolk of an egg contains a large amount of cholesterol (most of an eggs nutrients are also located in the yolk), eggs can be safely included into a "healthy diet" when eaten with moderation. According to the American Egg Board a person with a healthy diet can safely consume up to four eggs a week. This doesn't, I would assume, mean that an individual should consume the allotted four eggs all in one sitting. Again, the key is moderation. Maybe I'm wrong (and I often am), but it seems to me that it makes a whole lot more sense to periodically consume something as natural and wholesome as an egg, than it does to eat any number of the blitz-marketed products available with the word(s) "lite," "low-fat," or "no cholesterol" attached to them, while at the same time the ingredient list is a paragraph long and carries unpronounceable words. (I won't even get into the subject of "synthetic fats" in junk foods.)