In a recent blog post I mentioned the symposium that the Egg Nutrition Center recently coordinated at the Experimental Biology meetings in Washington DC that looked at the implications of dietary cholesterol intake on cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk. I mentioned that the four symposium speakers, all of whom are experts in cardiovascular health and disease, concluded that the scientific literature does not generally support the relationship between cholesterol intake, serum cholesterol, and heart disease risk for the majority of the population. And a study recently published in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition by a group from Spain (Egg consumption and risk of cardiovascular disease in the SUN Project).bears this out.
The researchers correlated egg consumption with the incidence of CVD in 14,000 Mediterranean subjects. Subjects were categorized as non-egg consumers, <1 egg/wk, 1 egg/wk, 2-4 eggs/wk, and >4 eggs/wk. In short, no association was found between egg consumption and the incidence of CVD. In light of a number of recent research findings indicating that dietary cholesterol does not appear to be as unhealthy as previously thought, these results were not surprising. But for many, results like these do represent a break from “traditional’ (at least for the past 40 years or so) ways of thinking about the diet/disease relationship. Newer studies increasingly indicate that some dietary fats may not be as unhealthy as previously thought, and that some fats may actually carry health benefits. Other studies suggest that we eat more protein, and cut back on carbohydrate intake (particularly refined carbs and sugars) to help to ensure optimal health. The nutrition research landscape is ever-changing as our understanding about specific foods and diet patterns evolves. Keep your eyes and ears open. In the nutrition world, it’s easy to learn something new every day!