Four years after the government’s 2015-2020 Dietary Guidelines advised us that we should not hold the eggs, new research from Northwestern University suggests that eggs may not be risk free. A Northwestern news release reports that a study involving nearly 30,000 people found that adults who ate more eggs and dietary cholesterol had a significantly higher risk of cardiovascular disease and death from any cause.ÂÂ
The release notes that egg yolks are one of the richest sources of dietary cholesterol, followed by other animal products such as red meat, processed meat and high-fat dairy products (butter or whipped cream).
The new study, which looked at data on 29,615 U.S. racially and ethnically diverse adults from six prospective cohort studies for up to 31 years, found that eating 300 mg of dietary cholesterol per day was associated with 17 percent higher risk of incident cardiovascular disease and 18 percent higher risk of all-cause deaths. Eating three to four eggs per week was associated with 6 percent higher risk of cardiovascular disease and 8 percent higher risk of any cause of death. And no, exercise did not change the equation.