The Other White Egg

I was sitting with a friend over the weekend, and she commented that she does not eat eggs. I quickly asked, “Oh, you don’t do dairy?” She replied, “I do dairy, I just can’t do eggs.”

It was not until this morning that it hit me, like random thoughts so often do, eggs are not dairy! Where did I get that idea? I have had that idea most of my life, all of my life. The more I thought about it, the stranger it seemed.

Dairy. The very word says everything you need to know. A dairy is a building for the storage, processing and distribution of milk and milk products. Goats milk; cows milk. Eggs come from neither.

Eggs used to be sold in the dairy aisle. Is that where I got that idea? No, this seemed to be woven into the memories of my childhood. I then remembered a colorful pyramid. The USDA Health Pyramid to be exact. Is that where I got the idea?

Do you remember those earlier version? Boy, did they get it wrong, in so many ways. The pyramid has been reworked a time or two as more knowledge about health becomes available, but did you ever wonder who invented the health pyramid?

Someone from the USDA perhaps? Nope. A doctor in nutrition? No. A health and wellness practitioner? Nope. A Swedish home economics teach? Yes!

Her name was Anna-Britt Agnsäter and she was a Swedish home economics teacher and head of the test kitchen for a Swedish consumers' coop from 1946 to 1980.

She was the author of several popular Swedish cookbooks and was critical of the television chefs of the time for their liberal use of fat in cooking. With butter use rising after rationing ended in Sweden, Anna-Britt's aim was to teach the Swedish population to eat more healthily and cut back on fat.

Her most important contribution was her 1974 food pyramid, which she hoped would improve Sweden's dietary habits. It became widely accepted both in Sweden and internationally. (Source: wiki pedia.org)

I have two very old cookbooks. They are from the 1800’s and I love the language in them. Also, the recipes. Most have been long forgotten. And just as well. Some call for the use of Borax. Yes! Borax. The last time I used Borax was about a year ago to make homemade slime. The time before that was in my laundry and I think I sprinkled some to keep the mice away many years ago, but never in my food!

Did you know that in the 1800’s sick people would consult their cookbooks before they would consult a doctor?

“IN MOST MIDDLE-CLASS BRITISH HOUSEHOLDS in the 18th and 19th centuries, you would find a booklet filled with recipes collected and curated over generations. But these guides were more than the cookbooks or housekeeping guides you’d find in today’s bookstores. Tucked between recipes for roast goose and apple dumplings were instructions for making medical remedies—everyday ingredients whipped into salves for bruises and syrups for coughs.

“Over the years, these all-purpose guides, which were published throughout Europe and in the United States, went through different iterations and included more recipe and how-to categories. Alongside stews and pies, the books also describe how to carve, pickle, make ink, brew beer, manage bees, and heal sprains. The treasured volumes, passed from generation to generation, give a window into the concerns, common illnesses, activities, and interests of middle-class modern homes.

“Reading through The Prudent Housewife, some medical treatments sound whimsical while others appear dangerous. For a sprain, The Prudent Housewife advises a soak in warm vinegar, and then applying a paste of stale beer grounds, oatmeal, and hog’s lard every day until the pain and swelling go away. Hiccups call for a tasty sounding syrup of liquid cinnamon on a lump of sugar, while heart burn requires a glass of water or chamomile tea with scraped chalk. To rid of giddiness, people would drink 20 drops of castor oil mixed in water. “The smoke of tobacco blown into the ear is an excellent remedy” for an ear ache. And, leeches behind the ears to cure your headache…” YIKES! (Source: atlasobscura.com)

So much information has been lost over the years.

I think of that secret, late-night meeting between Jesus and Nicodemus. Jesus knows his heart. Nicodemus is sincerely seeking to know Him. But he is also sincerely questioning the validity of this prophesy coming true. Now? In his lifetime? “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.” But. There is always a but. But, how can these things be?

Jesus asked him, “If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things?”

Legit question.

Jesus went on to say to Nicodemus, “…as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.”

And then follows the most famous verse in the world, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

And the forgotten part? Perhaps the part that was never known…verse 17: “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”

The recipe for salvation; the recipe that has never been changed or tweaked or been reworked, is found in chapter 3 of John.

And it does not stop there! Verse 18, “Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.” ESV

That is the recipe for salvation. Those are the step-by-step instructions for eternal life with Jesus. It seems almost too easy but, “This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. God didn’t go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again. Anyone who trusts in him is acquitted; anyone who refuses to trust him has long since been under the death sentence without knowing it. And why? Because of that person’s failure to believe in the one-of-a-kind Son of God when introduced to him.” John 3:16-18 The Message Bible

by Jeanette Stark – Monday, March 20, 2023