More Than One Egg a Day . . .

When cholesterol raised its head as a potential killer molecule, the first thing people stopped eating was eggs. That was about 35 years ago. Since then the egg has been rehabilitated, with a spirited defense by the American Egg Board's Egg Nutrition Center. In 1999 they published a summary of studies showing that an egg a day or more had no ill-effects on cardiovascular disease or mortality (except, perhaps, in diabetics). A new study, however, has just been published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

Harvard scientists examined data from the Physicians Health Study, which included egg consumption in the food frequency questionnaires that participants completed at enrollment. During the follow-up period, which averaged 20 years, there were 1,550 heart attacks among the 21,000-odd participating physicians. The hazards ratios, or degrees of risk, for death were calculated for 1, 2-4, 5-6, and 7-or-more eggs a week, setting ‘less than 1 egg a week’ as 1.0. The risks were 0.94, 1.03, 1.05, and 1.23, respectively. In other words, those eating seven or more eggs a week had a 1.23-times greater risk of death within the next 20 years. Put another way, the risk of dying was increased by 23%. (In those subjects with diabetes, the risk for eating more than 7 eggs a week was double that of those eating less than one a week.)

It must be pointed out that the men who ate the most eggs were older, fatter, and were more likely to drink and smoke and less likely to exercise. This certainly diminishes the role of excessive egg-eating as a reason for earlier death. And to set the finding in proportion, an editorial in the same journal points out that the risk offered by over 7 eggs a week is not any more consistent than consumption of trans fat or excessive saturated fat. For those who are egg-addicted, consider whites-only omelets – they taste very similar to whole-egg omelets, I’m told.