Paul Goldfinger, MD, FACC. Editor@Blogfinger.net. Re-post from 2019. Ocean Grove, NJ
In the 2011 edition of our book* on preventing heart disease, we have a section on particular foods such as nuts, chocolate, red wine, tea, coffee, salt, and eggs. Regarding the latter, this what we said then:
“The egg industry says that eating eggs is healthy, because eggs contain no fat and do not raise cholesterol blood levels. The American Heart Association disagrees, pointing out that each egg yolk contains 185 mg of cholesterol, and research trials have shown that eating cholesterol promotes heart disease, even if the cholesterol levels do not rise (Nutrition Action Healthletter, July 1997.)
“According to Jeremiah Stamler, a world expert on prevention, eggs do raise total and bad (LDL) cholesterol levels.”
“The AHA recommends that individuals eat no more than four egg yolks per week. They also say that we should eat no more than 300 mg. of cholesterol from all sources each day. Other experts advocate reducing egg intake to only one or two eggs per week (JAMA 4/21/99)”
In the 1990’s, at Dover General Medical Center (NJ) where I worked, one of our gastroenterologists, who was a gentleman egg farmer, loudly asserted that eggs posed no risks despite their cholesterol content. He stressed that eggs have no fats in them, so he brought eggs to the hospital frequently, peddling them in the coronary care unit.
Then in 2013, the British Medical Journal came up with a study that found no risk with one egg per day. So the pendulum was swinging.
Now, in the Journal of the American Medical Association, an impressive study appears looking at 30,000 individuals over 17 years. They found that there was an increased risk of death, stroke and cardiovascular diseases associated with eating eggs. They suggested that eating even 3-4 eggs per week is bad. But the study is subject to criticism of its methodology.
I can conclude that our egg intake should be limited to some extent, perhaps no more than 4 per week, but the verdict is still not in despite this JAMA article which looked at a large number of people and their dietary habits and heart disease risks.
Here is a link to a prior (2016) related post on Blogfinger, and in that post is another link.
And here is an excellent short video from a physician at McGill University. This doctor is brilliant in his assessment of the situation:
And here is a 2022 summary from the Cleveland Clinic:
https://health.clevelandclinic.org/can-you-eat-eggs-every-day/
CAST OF OLIVER:
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