Eggs Contribute an Insignificant Risk to Heart Disease

A new study estimates that eating one egg per day is responsible for less than 1% of the risk of coronary heart disease (CHD) in healthy adults.

Researchers at Exponent (Menlo Park, CA, USA), an international engineering and scientific consulting firm, applied a risk apportionment approach to estimate the contribution of egg consumption and other modifiable lifestyle risk factors (e.g., smoking, poor diet, minimal exercise, and alcohol intake) to CHD risk at the population level. The researchers used data from the 1999-2000 and 2001-2001 U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (NHANES) to categorize the adult population of the United States into various groups based on a set of modifiable lifestyle risks. The study population accounted for 85% of all U.S. males ages 25 and older and 86% of U.S. females ages 25 and older.

The study findings show that the consumption of one egg per day contributes less than 1% of heart disease risk. Modifiable lifestyle risk factors such as smoking, poor diet, being overweight or obese, and physical inactivity accounted for 30-40% of heart disease risk, while unavoidable risk factors, such as genetics, and potentially treatable risk factors, such as hypertension and diabetes, accounted for 60-70% of the risk. The study--which was funded by the Egg Nutrition Center (Washington DC, USA)--was published early online on November 4, 2008, in the journal Risk Analysis.

"This study should influence health professionals to finally acknowledge decades of research showing that egg consumption is not a significant risk factor for heart disease,” said lead author Leila Barraj, D.Sc., senior managing scientist in Exponent's health sciences center for chemical regulation and food safety. "The health community should focus on meaningful recommendations when it comes to preventing heart disease, like smoking and obesity, not egg consumption.”

Current guidelines of the American Heart Association (AHA) recommend that healthy adults limit their intake of dietary cholesterol to less than 300 mg per day; since a large egg contains about 71% of that amount, the AHA recommends restricting egg consumption, unless dietary cholesterol intakes from other sources are limited.

Related Links:
Exponent
Egg Nutrition Center