Two prospective studies covering almost a decade have shown that healthy people did not increase their risk of heart disease or stroke by eating one egg a day (JAMA 1999;281:1387-94).
It’s not eggs but other dietary and lifestyle choices that are the problem. “Egg consumption was positively associated with smoking, lower physical activity, and a generally unhealthy eating pattern,” the researchers report.
Men and women who ate eggs were more likely to eat bacon, and men were more likely also to consume whole milk, red meat, and bread, and less likely to consume skimmed milk, chicken, vegetables, and fruit. Findings were less clear in women.
Study coauthor Dr Frank B Hu, a nutritional epidemiologist at the Harvard School of Public Health, said: “Eggs are a controversial food in the nutrition community. They are high in cholesterol. One egg contains about 210 mg of cholesterol. Because of that, it was believed that egg consumption caused heart disease, although there are no direct scientific data.”
Many studies have looked at the effect of egg consumption on serum cholesterol, but few if any have looked at the link between egg consumption and heart disease.
The study, part of two ongoing studies at Harvard, included 80000 women in the nurses’ health study and 40000 men in the health professionals’ follow up study. Participants answered lengthy questionnaires about health status and dietary habits.
People were included in the egg study if at outset they did not have cardiovascular disease, diabetes, hypercholesterolaemia, or cancer. Outcome measures of non-fatal myocardial infarction, fatal coronary heart disease, and stroke were related to participants’ reported egg consumption, which ranged from almost none to two or more per day.
One egg a day did not have an impact on heart disease or stroke in healthy men and women. Either the effect of dietary cholesterol from eggs is not as great as was thought, or it is counterbalanced by beneficial nutrients in eggs or dietary cholesterol is so high in the usual Western diet than an egg here or there doesn’t matter.
Only in a subgroup of people with diabetes was there an increased risk of coronary heart disease. Picture credit:Daryl solomon/photonica
Figure.
It”s ok to go to work on an egg