August 15, 2012 | 6:49 AM |

Sunny Side Down: Study Compares Eggs’ Effect On Your Arteries To Smoking

FILED UNDER: Medicine/Science

fried eggs

(Violetriga on Wikimedia Commons)


Sorry to start your day this way. I don’t like it either. I much prefer a chunk of the breakfast above. But the latest study of the day in The Atlantic’s excellent new health section is headlined “Study: Eggs Are Nearly as Bad For Your Arteries As Cigarettes.”

Now, I’d thought eggs were what I call a pendulum food: The studies say they’re good for you. No, they’re bad for you! In fact, they’re really bad for you! No, they’re okay, just eat them in moderation. That kind of thing.

But this latest study does seem to tip the balance toward bad — at least, for the yolks, with their high cholesterol. From the Atlantic:

RESULTS: Aging was associated with a linear increase in arterial plaque after age 40, but smoking and egg consumption were each independently associated with an exponential increase in plaque. Egg consumption had two-thirds of the effect of smoking.
…
IMPLICATION: While the link between eggs and cholesterol — and between cholesterol and heart disease — is well established, this study sheds light on the extent of their potential harm if eaten routinely in large quantities. A single large egg contains more than 180 mg of cholesterol — more than a third of a person’s daily recommended intake. By this measure, a typical American breakfast alone, with two eggs (plus bacon!), would push well past that. Egg whites, meanwhile, remain excellent.

Sigh. Anybody have some good ways to transform egg whites from white rubber into something resembling food? Personally, I use ketchup.

  • Mrs White

    At least eggs don’t give out second hand smoke that bothers the others.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1079692325 Karen Sauter Gomes

    egg white omelets are decent, and even if you are making scrambled eggs, you really don’t lose much by only using one yolk and separating out the rest of the eggs. But, doesn’t help you if you love fried eggs or deviled eggs, that’s for sure!

    • Judy

      The most nutrients are found in the yolk. I’ll stick to omelets with whole eggs. I eat three eggs a day on average. And my cholesterol is better than when I avoided eggs, and saturated fat. So much for all the great dietary advice we have been fed for the last several decades. Get a copy of Gary Taubes book, Good Calories, Bad Calories, and read it.

  • Sue Hudson

    Did you know that this study was conducted with individuals
    with heart disease. So therefore it is difficult to infer that these results
    would apply to the balance of the general population. This Harvard School of
    Public Health study is a more relevant guide for the average person http://hvrd.me/PcPYcl. It does recommend
    caution to those with difficulty controlling their total and LDL cholesterol
    and those with diabetes. Eggs also contain nutrients that may help lower the
    risk for heart disease, including protein, vitamins B12 and D, riboflavin, and
    folate. Here is another article that
    explains how the research was carried out: http://understandnutrition.blogspot.ca/2012/08/eating-egg-yolks-as-bad-as-smoking.html. It is important to keep things in context!

  • ginofrater

    Good, Bad,Good,Bad,Good, Bad ..What is next ?

  • Matt E.

    yes eggs are extremely bad for you when you cook them in copious amounts of grease and or butter (as pictured above). This article is bogus. I’m willing to bet the eggs in the experiment weren’t prepared in a healthy way.

    • Pussyfoot

      grease and butter also also fine. Read up on the latest science.

  • jefe68

    I eat eggs once or twice a week. A friend of mine has chickens and sometimes I get some fresh egg that have the most beautiful bright orange yolks.
    I have my cholesterol checked once a year and it’s low LDL.
    This study seems to be flawed in a lot ways. Bad as cigarettes? If so a lot of people I know would have severe heart disease now and they don’t. Not the one, and a lot of them are over 40.

  • http://twitter.com/band0lera Jackie A

    Yet another brilliant article.

  • http://profile.yahoo.com/5WBEH6Z4N5GYZCPHZJCXUXRJ7U charliesgirl

    I give up. I am eating my eggs once a week whether scientists like it or not.

    • jefe68

      Me too. Screw them.

  • K2

    Agree with Reasonable? – this study is severely flawed and says so right in the article, but of course the people reporting on it initially don’t bother to point that out. Media in general needs to get better about scientific reporting.

  • BEASLEY!

    Sautee garlic, use fresh herbs, tomatoes, etc.

  • Reasonable?

    This is a study based on CORRELATION yet this article an the Atlantic are suggesting a causal link. That’s bad science, bad statistics and bad reporting. At best studies like this should be ignored, at worst the reporting should emphasize the severe limits of the methodology used.

    Bottomline there are much better designed studies out there to weigh the impact of egg consumption on health….please find them.

    • http://www.facebook.com/thestrag Erick Straghalis

      “Cholesterol is a natural substance your body produces for a variety of uses. It is carried through the body in three containers — LDL, HDL, and VLDL — that deliver it to cells along with triglycerides. The average man reasons that the cholesterol in his scrambled eggs must surely end up in his arteries somehow, and this makes him do things like order egg-white omelets for breakfast.
      There is indeed a link between the cholesterol you eat and the cholesterol in your arteries. It’s just not the “eat more, have more” worry that’s been drummed into you for years. In fact, your body’s production and uptake of cholesterol is highly regulated; eat a six-egg omelet and your body simply produces less cholesterol because of the dietary onslaught. “There is a very weak connection between the LDL cholesterol we measure and dietary cholesterol,” Dr. Krauss says. “I spend a lot of time talking to reporters and trying to explain that dietary cholesterol is not the same as blood cholesterol.” He adds that the 200 milligrams of cholesterol most people eat every day is nothing compared with the 800 milligrams their bodies produce. But you don’t have to take his word for it. “It is now acknowledged that the original studies purporting to show a linear relation between cholesterol intake and coronary heart disease may have contained fundamental study design flaws,” wrote the author of a recent review in the International Journal of Clinical Practice.” From: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35058896/ns/health-heart_health/t/bad-cholesterol-its-not-what-you-think/

    • knorrig2

      It’s arguable that you can never truly prove causation. To say that any study that reports correlation is worthless reveals a misunderstanding is irrational. There are many findings that you probably take for granted that are correlative but that we use to make predictions that are shown to be true time and time again.

  • Brian Edwards MD

    I eat 3 eggs a day. My LDL-P is 500. Excellent.

    • knorrig2

      Single anecdotes are irrelevant to population studies that rely on statistical significance to suggest a new line of study.

  • X-Ray

    The consumption of how many eggs per day equals how many cigarettes per day? Not a very enlightening article.