The square root of cholesterol, by George Moran

Cartoonist George Moran is famous for finding humor in eggs. Thirty years after his original publication, he produced a second book of egg cartoons called: “Fresh Eggs”

It was serendipitous that this cartoon, representing the square root of an egg yolk, coincided with Ancel Keys’s equation showing that change in serum cholesterol varies with the square root of dietary cholesterol in mg/1000 calories (egg yolk being the main source of dietary cholesterol).

It also coincided with Henry Blackburn’s participation as a witness for the government in a Federal Trade Commission trial over the American Egg Council making misleading health claims for eggs. The Egg Council lawyers attempted to subpoena ten years of Blackburn’s personal and professional correspondence, to harass him and influence his testimony. The Trial resulted in an injunction that the Egg Council cease the false ads. They returned to typical happy huckstering with their still current motto: “The Incredible, Edible Egg.”

In subsequent correspondence between Blackburn and George Moran he produced another cartoon imagining an Egg Council: “More hard-boiled, perhaps.“