Misleading News Headline Regarding Egg Consumption
Posted:
2018-05-11
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This trial recently appeared in the news, Nutrition Journal Suggests New Guidelines for Egg Consumption, with the researchers concluding that, "a healthy diet based on population guidelines and including more eggs than currently recommended by some countries may be safely consumed". The PEN® System recently updated this Practice Question: Are interventions to decrease cholesterol intake (e.g. restricting eggs) recommended for the secondary prevention of cardiovascular disease (CVD)? The evidence used to answer the question includes a systematic review that reports earlier results of the trial mentioned above along with five other randomized controlled trials, which found that regular egg consumption had no adverse effects on blood lipid levels. All of these trials were assessed at high risk of bias (primarily for lack of allocation concealment and failure to blind participants/personnel) and they all received funding from egg boards/councils. In contrast to these findings, a high egg intake (i.e. >1 egg/day versus <1 egg/week) has been associated with an increased risk of coronary heart disease in individuals with diabetes. A high dietary cholesterol intake (>200 mg/day) can also increase serum cholesterol levels in some people and there is a lack of harm from restricting dietary cholesterol.
Therefore, the PEN recommendation, based on very low quality evidence, suggests restricting dietary cholesterol to ≤200 mg/day (e.g. by reducing egg consumption to <1 egg/week) to reduce CVD events for adults with diabetes, dyslipidemia or established CVD. For practice guidance, see the updated PEN client handout: Eating Guidelines for People with High Blood Cholesterol.
This recommendation does not apply to adults at low CVD risk. For information on eggs for the general population, see PEN Practice Question: Are interventions to decrease dietary cholesterol intake (e.g. restricting eggs) recommended for the primary prevention of cardiovascular disease (CVD)?