Are Eggs Bad For You (again)?

A Registered Dietitian’s thoughts on the new study released regarding the correlation between egg consumption and cardiovascular disease.

Eggs in The News Again

First they were bad, then they were good, are eggs now bad again?

A new study published recently in the Journal of the American Medical Association has eggs on the chopping block again in terms of cholesterol and heart health.

Findings of the Study

The March 2019 published article that put eggs back in the news (again), was actually a analysis/pooling of information collected from 6 different panel studies taking place in the United States from 1985-2016.

The study evaluated 29,615 people over a median period of 17.5 years. The goal was the evaluate whether egg or dietary cholesterol intake was linked to a higher risk of Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) or Death of Any Other Cause.

Yes, you read that right…Death of any Cause.

The study found that the more eggs or cholesterol that a person consumed, the higher their risk of CVD / death of any cause.

Furthermore, they found that each additional 300 mg of dietary cholesterol/day was linked to about a further 17% increased risk of CVD.

Issues With the Study/Findings

There aren’t very many research studies that are 100% perfect. Life and people have so many variables that it’s next to impossible to control every aspect.

Some of the key issues with this study include –

• The dietary info collected was based on a questionnaire that was completed once by participants at the very beginning of the study. A lot can change as far as someone’s dietary habits over a period of 17 years! Not to mention that self completed questionnaire about a person’s diet are not always 100% accurate. I fully confess that when my toddler’s well-check questionnaire asks if my child eats 2-3 servings of vegetables a day, I just check yes. Is that 100% accurate, no way.
• No other dietary controls were evaluated. Did the person that ate eggs also eat a diet high in steak? bacon? sausage? excess amounts of cheese, butter or oil? foods high in saturated fat? What did the rest of their diet look like? A person doesn’t typically just eat eggs and nothing else.

My Egg Recommendations

A “healthy” diet doesn’t focus on individual foods. Instead, the whole picture should be taken into account. This includes overall dietary pattern, daily activity level, stress levels, genetics, smoking, etc.

Everyone is so different and dietary needs depend on so many variables, making it a truly individualized recommendation. However, in general, I would say for a person that consumes a well balanced diet, in generally good health that doesn’t have trouble with high cholesterol or CVD already, should be able to consume eggs without worrying about eliminating them from their diet.

Try These Egg Recipes

As a supporter of eggs for their health benefits (protein, lutein, folate, zinc, iron, and Vitamin A, D, E, B12) and great flavor, I have a whole pinterest board dedicated to delicious egg recipes.