I’ve been having some bother with eggs of late, because since we had to treat our chickens for lice a couple of weeks ago, we have been advised not to eat any eggs. It’s one of those grey areas where, because hens are usually industrial birds rather than pets, their medicines are not tested for the ability to cross the placenta or whatever the thing is in the hen that stops nasty things getting into their eggs. In an industrial unit, they’d be treated if they were lucky and then their eggs would be discarded for a month. I assume that many farmers would just cull them or let the birds live with lice. I’m not sure, not being close to any chicken farmers.

Anyhow, it has grieved me no end to see our beautiful, luscious eggs go to waste so I’ve been boiling them then feeding them to crows/jackdaws/rooks on our open bird table on the basis that if a hen made the egg, it was unlikely to harm another bird.

The other day, after two and a half weeks of watching our precious food go to waste, I decided “sod it” I’m going to have an egg on my pizza. So I did. Since then, we’ve been back on our eggs full-time, after I wandered into the house with a pristine white egg from Dusty in my hand and I asked DM how anything so beautiful and natural could be harmful.

Of course, I have always (and always would have done) ignored the advice of dieticians who have said for years that you shouldn’t eat more than three eggs a week. The same principle applies to butter and eggs in my view – I’d much rather trust a cow or a hen than a so-called food scientist who’d rather we ate low fat spreads than natural butter.

However, I woke up to the news this morning that they’ve changed their minds and decided that eggs are not harmful after all and they’re now saying you can eat as many of them as you like. So, to all those po-faced people who have said for years you shouldn’t eat them, this is my rather juvenile response. Go suck a lemon. I’ll be tucking into my poached eggs as normal, savouring every unctious mouthful of delicious yolk on top of home-made buttered toast. What could be better for you than that?