I just returned from the Experimental Biology meetings, which were held in Washington D.C. Experimental Biology is one of the largest biology/nutrition research meeting of its kind in the world. It’s an excellent way to stay abreast of current research, a good deal of which will ultimately lead to tomorrow’s health and nutrition recommendations.
At this year’s meeting the Egg Nutrition Center sponsored a symposium on dietary cholesterol. The key issue we delved into at the session was the true health implications of dietary cholesterol, and whether or not the cholesterol that we eat is as harmful as many health care professionals have been suggesting for the past 50 years or so. I was pleased to chair the session. Our four presenters were Dr. Penny Kris-Etherton from Penn State University; Dr. David Katz from Yale University, Dr. Maria Luz-Fernandez from the University of Connecticut; and Dr. Kasey Vickers, a post doctoral research fellow from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) at the NIH. All four are well published, acknowledged experts in the areas of disease prevention, nutrition, cholesterol metabolism and health.
Among other key points, Dr. Fernandez brought up the fact that the original dietary recommendation for daily cholesterol intake (<300 mg/d) was based largely on extrapolations from animal studies and human epidemiologic data, and that few studies have actually demonstrated significantly adverse health effects when cholesterol is consumed in that range. Dr. Katz made similar assertions, and he indicated that his research has shown that higher than average daily cholesterol intake does not have negative effects on the vasculature or on other markers of cardiovascular disease, even in patients with existing coronary artery disease.
Our ultimate goal is to generate a manuscript based on the presentations that we submit for publication to a medical journal sometime in the near future.
The symposium generated a lot of spirited discussion and questions from the researchers in the audience. All-in-all, it was an informative and enjoyable session that I was happy to have had the opportunity to participate in
