A new JAMA publication shows that egg consumption can cause heart attacks, so skip those three-egg omelettes. This study looked at 6 prospective cohort studies in the US. There were 29,615 adults who were part of the study, and the follow-up period was 17.5 years on average. Each additional 300 mg of cholesterol consumption per day had an increased health risk. Specifically, there was a risk of 17% to come down with cardiovascular disease (heart attack or stroke). In addition there was also an all-cause mortality risk of 18%. Each additional ½ an egg per day associates with a risk of 6% to cause a heart attack or stroke. This produced an all-cause mortality of 8%.
Discussion
The study came to the conclusion that increased cholesterol consumption and consumption of eggs was clearly producing a dose-response relationship with strokes, heart attacks and all-cause mortality.
It it is relatively easy to prevent this from happening. Eat more vegetables and less meat. Switch from the consumption of whole eggs to egg white consumption. It is the egg yolk, which contains the cholesterol. Fish, prawns and shrimp contain a moderate amount of cholesterol. Egg white is completely free of cholesterol. Here is a list of foods taht are high in cholesterol.
Other literature found that eggs with the choline content of the egg yolk could cause prostate cancer. This may be another reason why males should rather eat egg white instead of whole eggs with the egg yolk.
Skip Those Three-Egg Omelettes
Conclusion
The conclusion of this study can be summarized very simply: skip those three-egg omelettes. Replacing eggs with egg white would allow you to have more freedom regarding other foods that you don’t want to change, like seafood, for instance. The key finding in this important study is that after removing all the confounding factors it is egg consumption and cholesterol from consumption of meat have an association with higher heart attack and stroke rates. The all-cause mortality, which includes prostate cancer and other cancers, was also increased. A simple solution to reducing your odds is to switch to egg white instead of whole eggs.
