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Eating eggs and cholesterol linked to higher risk of heart disease and death, study finds

FILE - In this May 14, 2008 file photo, cartons of eggs are displayed for sale in the Union Square green market in New York. The latest U.S. research on eggs won’t go over easy for those can’t eat breakfast without them. Study participants who ate about 1 ½ eggs daily had a slightly higher risk of heart disease than those who ate no eggs. The study showed the more eggs, the greater the risk. The chances of dying early were also elevated. (Mark Lennihan / Associated Press)
By Ella Torres Tribune News Service

The case against eggs was cracked wide open.

A new Northwestern Medicine report found that adults who consumed more eggs and cholesterol were at a significantly higher risk of cardiovascular disease and death from any cause.

The findings, which were released Friday in the Journal of the American Medical Association, suggested that the United States’ current dietary guideline recommendations for the two groups “may need to be re-evaluated.”

For adults, eating 300 milligrams of dietary cholesterol per day was associated with 17 percent higher risk of incident cardiovascular disease and 18 percent higher risk of all-cause deaths. The study also reported that eating three to four eggs per week was associated with 6 percent higher risk of cardiovascular disease and 8 percent higher risk of any cause of death.

The milligrams of cholesterol and number of eggs listed in the study were the average amount an adult in the U.S. consumes per day.

“The take-home message is really about cholesterol, which happens to be high in eggs and specifically yolks,” co-corresponding study author Norrina Allen said in a statement. “As part of a healthy diet, people need to consume lower amounts of cholesterol. People who consume less cholesterol have a lower risk of heart disease.”

While the authors did not recommend cutting out eggs altogether, they did suggest limiting one’s intake of cholesterol-rich foods.

Previous studies found that eggs did not raise the risk of cardiovascular disease, but Allen said those studies generally had a less diverse sample, shorter follow-up time and limited ability to adjust for other parts of the diet.

The new study looked at data from 29,615 adults from six prospective cohort studies for up to 31 years.

During that time, there were 5,400 cardiovascular events and 6,132 all-cause deaths. The authors noted that a major limitation of the study was the participants’ long-term eating patterns weren’t assessed.

“We have one snapshot of what their eating pattern looked like,” Allen said. “But we think they represent an estimate of a person’s dietary intake. Still, people may have changed their diet, and we can’t account for that.”