CardioExchange Archive

CardioExchange, an NEJM practice community for medical professionals dedicated to improving cardiac patient care, was active from 2009 to 2015. CardioExchange fostered discussion between clinicians from across the globe.

January 15th, 2013

Large Meta-Analysis Finds No Harm Associated with Eggs

No food has had more ups and downs over the last century or so than the common egg. Following a long period in which eggs were ubiquitous and highly regarded, eggs fell from favor with the rise of concerns over cholesterol. Currently, the American Heart Association recommends that people restrict dietary cholesterol to 300 mg per day, which effectively limits people to 1 egg per day at most. However, the relationship of dietary cholesterol and serum cholesterol  is, at best, tenuous, and a significant number of experts now believe that egg consumption poses no risk to cardiovascular health.

In a new paper published in BMJ, a group of researchers from China and Boston performed a meta-analysis of 8 studies that included 263,938 participants for coronary heart disease (CHD) and 210,404 participants for stroke and followed them for 8 to 22 years. The authors found no evidence for an association between egg consumption and either CHD or stroke:

  • Relative risk of CHD for adding 1 egg per day: 0.99 (CI 0.85- 0 1.15, p=0.88)
  • Relative risk of stroke for adding 1 egg per day: 0.91 (CI 0.81 – 1.02, p=0.10)

However, an increased risk for CHD was observed in the subgroup of patients with diabetes in the group of participants with the highest egg consumption compared with those with the lowest consumption (relative risk 1.54, CI 1.14 – 2.09, p=0.01). No similar increase in the risk of stroke was observed in this group, though a protective effect against hemorrhagic stroke was observed in those with the highest egg consumption (relative risk 0.75, CI 0.57 – 0.99, p=0.04). The authors cautioned that the findings in the diabetes subgroup required confirmation in additional studies.

The authors concluded that the findings of their meta-analysis “do not support a positive association between egg consumption and cardiovascular disease outcomes in the general population.”

Related content on CardioExchange: Read Richard Lehman’s amusing perspective on eggs and this study.

Categories: Prevention
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2 Responses to “Large Meta-Analysis Finds No Harm Associated with Eggs”

  1. Alfonso E. Sierra, MD says:
    January 15, 2013 at 6:30 pm

    Eggs have been vindicated and declared close to be worth of being again American food.

  2. Neville Wilson, M.B., Ch.B., D.Fam. Med., M.Sc., D.Obs (COG) SA., B.A. says:
    January 17, 2013 at 4:18 am

    I’ve never had a problem with eggs and recommend them to all my patients as part of a healthy daily regimen. They contain every nutrient the body needs, except vitamin C, and are only second to cod liver oil in vit D content.
    Most people will laud the benefits of olive oil, and fail to recognise that the humble egg yolk has 47 % oleic acid, as well as a host of other healthy saturated fats like palmitic acid, and fat soluble vitamins, minerals and trace elements to keep you healthy !
    I ate 10 eggs a day for 10 days (until leptin kicked in !) and measured my daily lipid profiles for 10 days. My total chol, and LDL and HDL remained stable for the entire period. I cant tell if these would have changed over a longer trial period !