A new study indicates that despite previous ones saying otherwise, eating eggs may not have an affect on blood pressure, cholesterol or heart health.
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Dr. Mahshid Dehghan, a senior research associate in the Department of Medicine McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada, conducted a study with her team that reviewed 177,000 people from 50 countries across six continents, Reuters reported. They also analyzed data from three prior longterm studies, which lasted about a decade.
Taking all the studies into account, there were 12,701 deaths and 13,658 cardiovascular events, or instances that would damage the heart muscle. Examples include high blood pressure and cardiac arrest. It appeared that consumption of eggs did not increase the risk of such events or boost the possibility of high cholesterol.
"Moderate egg intake, which is about one egg per day in most people, does not increase the risk of cardiovascular disease or mortality even if people have a history of cardiovascular disease or diabetes," Dehghan said in a press release.
The researcher, who served as the study’s lead author, also works as an investigator with the Population Health Research Institute at McMaster University.
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"Also, no association was found between egg intake and blood cholesterol, its components or other risk factors,” she added. “These results are robust and widely applicable to both healthy individuals and those with vascular disease."
The new study, which was published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, differs from older ones that tracked people for five years compared to the 10 years on the recent one, Reuters reported.
“Previous studies on egg consumption and diseases have been contradictory because most of these studies were relatively small or moderate in size and did not include individuals from a large number of countries,” Dehghan told the news outlet.
In the big study, participants included people from Asia and Africa, where according to Dehghan, eggs are least likely to harm hearth health because of people’s consumption of high-carbohydrate diets.
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Smaller studies, meanwhile, have indicated that the risk of heart disease or death may not be increased by infrequent consumption of eggs, but Dr. Luc Djousse an associate epidemiologist in the Division of Aging at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, said research on consuming seven or more eggs a day is not conclusive. Djousse was not involved in the new study.
Still, the American Heart Association recommends only eating one egg a day or consuming two egg whites.
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