New study vindicates eggs, says they don't hike bad-cholesterol levels
Eggs are commonly thought to increase the risk of heart disease by raising people's cholesterol levels.
But people who ate two eggs a day experienced reductions in their "bad" LDL cholesterol levels, as long as the rest of their diet remained low in saturated fat, researchers reported in the July issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
Indeed, the amount of saturated fat in a person's diet tended to increase their LDL cholesterol levels, not the cholesterol found in eggs, results show.
"You could say we've delivered hard-boiled evidence in defense of the humble egg," senior researcher Jon Buckley, a professor at the University of South Australia, said in a news release.
"So, when it comes to a cooked breakfast, it's not the eggs you need to worry about -- it's the extra serving of bacon or the side of sausage that's more likely to impact your heart health," Buckley added.
Eggs are a unique food, in that they are high in cholesterol but low in saturated fat, he said.
"Yet, it's their cholesterol level that has often caused people to question their place in a healthy diet," Buckley said.
For the new study, researchers recruited 61 adults 18 to 60 with an average LDL cholesterol level of 105.
LDL cholesterol levels above 100 are considered "at risk" for heart disease, and 160 and higher are "dangerous," according to the Cleveland Clinic. This type of cholesterol contributes to plaques that can block arteries and cause heart attacks or strokes.
Participants took turns cycling through three different types of diets for five weeks each:
• A high-cholesterol, low-saturated fat diet with two eggs a day.
• A low-cholesterol, high-saturated fat diet without eggs.
• A high-cholesterol, high-saturated fat diet that included one egg a week.
"To date, no studies have directly compared the effects of a high-cholesterol, high-saturated fat diet, as is common in Western diets, with a high-cholesterol, low-saturated fat diet or a low-cholesterol, high-saturated fat diet," researchers noted in their report.
By the end of the study, 48 people had completed all three diets. Blood samples were taken after each cycle, to see how the different diets affected their LDL cholesterol.
People's LDL cholesterol fell when on the two-egg diet, compared to the other two eating patterns, results show. They wound up with average LDL cholesterol levels of just under 104, compared with 108 and 109 for the other two diets.
"In this study, we separated the effects of cholesterol and saturated fat, finding that high dietary cholesterol from eggs, when eaten as part of a low saturated fat diet, does not raise bad cholesterol levels," Buckley said.
"Instead, it was the saturated fat that was the real driver of cholesterol elevation," he noted.
Specifically, each 1-gram increase in saturated fat was associated with a 0.35-point increase in LDL cholesterol, the study says.
But no significant relationship was found between cholesterol intake and a person's LDL cholesterol levels, results show.
"Eggs have long been unfairly cracked by outdated dietary advice," Buckley concluded.
More information
The Cleveland Clinic has more on blood cholesterol levels.
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