Too many eggs increase cholesterol and the risk of heart disease and early death

Eggs are part of our diet, but they increase cholesterol which can affect our health. Scientists have followed over 30,000 people for 31 years and have come to the conclusion that excessive amounts of eggs increase the risk of heart disease and early death: here is what we need to know.

Eggs: yes or no? The researchers explain to us that too many eggs a week increase cholesterol and, consequently, the risk of developing heart disease and early death.

A study that lasted 31 years

Scientists have followed over 30,000 people over the course of 31 years examining their diet and the collected data showed that 5,400 of them developed cardiovascular problems and other 6,132 died.

How many eggs we can eat

According to the experts, eggs would also have increased the health risks of the study participants. Eggs are in fact foods that we do not necessarily have to exclude from our diet, but for which we must pay close attention to the quantities. Considering that a egg contains about 186 mg of cholesterol in the yolk, experts explain that:

Eating 300 mg of cholesterol a day increases the risk of heart problems by 17% and the risk of death by 18%. In practice cholesterol is the independent driving factor for the consumption of saturated fats and other dietary fats.

Eating three or four eggs a week increases the risk of heart problems by 6% and the risk of death by 8%.

Therefore, the best thing would be to reduce as much as possible the consumption of foods such as eggs and red meat that increase the amount of cholesterol and the chances of negative consequences for health.

Limitations of the study

Anyway, experts say their study has some limitations because, although people were asked to follow a specific diet and to answer specific questionnaires, it was not possible to be sure that they had done it with rigor.

The research, entitled "Associations of Dietary Cholesterol or Egg Consumption With Incident Cardiovascular Disease and Mortality", was published on JAMA.