The High Cost of Eggs Really Isn't THAT High

I was chatting with my 82 year old grandmother today, discussing how she feels she eats "a lot", and specifically discussing her french toast for dinner, of which she felt I'd disapprove. But I love french toast! What a potentially healthy meal: whole grain bread, high protein eggs, a little milk, cinnamon, vanilla & spray oil - topped off with fruit and sugar free syrup (if any syrup at all) - sounds awesome and so beautifully balanced! Of course, her version may have been cooked in butter, and topped with butter and high-test syrup, but still, a good base of nutrients! Within that discussion, I told her of a conversation with my mother the day prior, where I admitted that we (my husband and I) can easily go through 4 dozen eggs a week. It seemed excessive when I said it out loud, and even more so as we were discussing the rise in prices of eggs, milk, etc. But in my conversation with my grandmother, I tried to rationalize it and break it down: my husband has a family history of heart disease and high cholesterol, and a past personal history, currently normalized, of high cholesterol. Therefore, I don't offer more than one whole egg at a time, and not more than 2-3 times per week, especially if we have red meat on the docket for that week. We do egg whites on the days between whole egg days (all accompanied by some type of carbohydrate - grain, fruit, etc.- of course). Each of us may start with an 4 to 6 egg white omelet - 3 to 4 times a week, plus a whole egg in between here and there - and walla! 4 dozen eggs a week! Where we live, I pay about $2.50 per dozen, which breaks down to $1.25 per breakfast of 6 egg whites. When I look at it that way, it doesn't seem too bad for about 100 calories and 18 grams of high quality protein with which to start the day off. And as I mentioned earlier, my bulk steel-cut oats come in ridiculously cheap, so in essence, even wasting all those yolks (essentially half the egg), eggs are still a relatively low cost source of high quality whole food, whether for breakfast, boiled up and cut in a salad for lunch, or made into a meaty omelet or frittata for dinner. No longer will I complain about the price of eggs - I'll focus on gas for a while!