We’ve featured studies on eggs and cholesterol many times in this space. But the message still hasn’t reached everyone out there. I don’t think it’s overkill to repeat – with reference to another new study – that eating eggs doesn’t ‘raise your cholesterol’!
I last touched on this important point back in April, when I spotlighted yet another learned study that exonerated eggs of their long-held reputation as cholesterol bombs…
Yes, they have cholesterol
But the latest findings show the cholesterol you take in from eating folds that contain it has absolutely no direct link to your blood cholesterol levels. And it’s the latter that constitutes such a grievous threat to heart health.
Nevertheless… Old habits – and beliefs – die hard.
Yet another proof
Researchers at the Duke University Clinical Research Institute went to extremes to demonstrate that eating lots of eggs isn’t ‘bad for your cholesterol’.
They chose 140 adult subjects aged 50 or older, and broke them randomly into two groups. One was instructed to eat no more than 2 eggs a week. The other was told to eat a dozen eggs a week. Their blood cholesterol levels were tested at the beginning of the experiment and after 2 months.
What they found
No surprise to folks who are tuned in to this issue, the team found that even consuming more than an egg and a half a day didn’t significantly effect blood cholesterol levels
“Study lead author Dr. Nina Nouhravesh reported that, among patients with, “heart disease or at risk of developing heart disease, the consumption of 12 fortified eggs per week did not negatively impact their cholesterol over 4 months, when compared to patients who were on a non-egg supplemented diet.”
The takeaway
“The urban myth out there is that eggs are bad for your heart,” said Dr. James O’Keefe, Professor of Medicine at the University of Missouri-Kansas City and cardiologist at Saint Luke’s Mid America Heart Institute. “It’s not a total myth, but we’ve known that guidelines for healthy eating took out previous advice to limit dietary cholesterol, because it really didn’t make a big difference in overall cholesterol.”
My take
Here we go again. Another bullet in the arsenal shooting down the myth of eggs as cholesterol bombs. And not a moment too soon. The sooner we bury this myth once and for all, the sooner we can all feel comfortable eating eggs regularly. Like our parent’s generation did – at least, when they were young. They’re powerhouse superfoods. And we should regard them as such!
~ Maggie J.