There has long raged a debate about whether or not eggs are bad for your cholesterol and bad for your heart. Several recent studies, however, have shown that eating eggs—sometimes in large quantities per week—does not contribute to high cholesterol. In fact, an egg-rich diet may actually have favorable effects on some cardiovascular risk factors.
In Favor of Eggs
The latest study to report findings in favor of eggs was presented at the 2024 American College of Cardiology meeting (ACC.24) this week. In the PROSPERITY trial, researchers found that people who ate at least 12 eggs a week had cholesterol levels that were statistically no different from those who ate less than 2 eggs per week.
Thus, eating eggs had no effect on cholesterol.
The participants in the trial were patients who already had known heart disease or who had risk factors for heart disease, so this was a high-risk population to begin with, and therefore the results may be even more surprising in how favorable they were.
In fact, subgroup analyses of the trial showed that eating eggs may have a particular benefit for adults with diabetes and adults 65 years of age and older, who had numerical increases in HDL (“good”) cholesterol and reductions in LDL (“bad”) cholesterol. Researchers observed signals that eating 12 or more eggs per week resulted in a reduction in total cholesterol and harmful cholesterol biomarkers (LDL particle number and apoB).
The egg-rich diet also lowered high-sensitivity troponin, which is a marker of heart damage, and lowered insulin resistance scores (insulin resistance is prominent in pre-diabetes and diabetes). As an added bonus, Vitamin B levels increased in those on the egg-rich diet.
The researchers do note that this was a small study and it would be beneficial to conduct larger, more robust studies to confirm these results. It should also be noted that the PROSPERITY trial was funded by Eggland’s Best, so it’s impossible to say that there was no industry bias. However, these results do build on similar studies that have shown that eating eggs has no meaningful, harmful effect on cholesterol.
My Take
I’ve been a board-certified clinical lipidologist (one who studies cholesterol) for nearly 20 years now, and I can recall hearing, at a board-review course those 2 decades ago, a very well-respected preventive cardiologist say that eating 2 eggs a day had no impact on cholesterol. Now, it appears that eating as many eggs as you like may not have any detrimental effects on your cholesterol—and may actually be helpful, although those results still need to be studied further in a larger trial.
Personally, as a preventive cardiologist myself, focused on promoting heart health and preventing heart disease, I don’t restrict my daily consumption of eggs. I enjoy eggs whenever I like, and don’t worry or feel guilty about it. In fact, eggs are a staple protein of a healthy vegetarian diet, and of the Mediterranean diet, both of which have been found again and again to lower the risk of heart disease and stroke.
So I’m happy to continue enjoying my eggs!
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