Egg Consumption Does Not Affect CVD Risk

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Moderate consumption of eggs is not associated with risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD), according to the results of a recent study.

“[B]ecause of the cholesterol content in eggs, the association between egg intake and CVD risk has been a topic of intense debate in the past decade,” the researchers wrote. “Many prospective studies on the association between egg intake and cardiovascular disease risk have provided conflicting findings.”

In order to explore the association between egg consumption and the risk of CVD, the researchers conducted a prospective cohort study and systematic review and meta-analysis involving participants from the Nurses’ Health Study (NHS 1980-2012), NHS II (1991-2013), and Health Professional’s Follow-up Study (HPFS, 1986-2012). Overall, 83,349 women from NHS, 90,214 women from NHS II, and 42,055 men from HPFS who were free of CVD, type 2 diabetes, and cancer at baseline were included in the analysis.

After up to 32 years of follow-up, 13,806 incident cases of CVD were identified within the 3 cohorts. Those participants with higher egg intake had higher body mass index, were less likely to be using statins, and consumed greater amounts of red meat than those with lower egg intake.

The researchers observed that consumption of at least 1 egg per day was not associated with incident CVD risk following adjustment for lifestyle and dietary factors (hazard ratio [HR] for at least 1 egg per day vs less than 1 egg per month 0.93, 95% confidence interval 0.82 to 1.05).

In their meta-analysis of studies involving 1,720,108 participants and 139,195 CVD events, the researchers observed that an increase of 1 egg per day was not associated with CVD risk, coronary heart disease, or stroke. No association was observed between egg consumption and CVD risk among US and European cohorts, but an inverse association was present in Asian cohorts.

“We found no association between egg consumption and risk of cardiovascular disease in 3 large US cohorts. Results from the updated meta-analysis lend further support to the overall lack of an association between moderate egg consumption (up to 1 egg per day) and cardiovascular disease risk,” the researchers concluded.

—Michael Potts

Reference:
Drouin-Chartier J, Chen S, Li Y, et al. Egg consumption and risk of cardiovascular disease: three large prospective US cohort studies, systematic review, and updated meta-analysis [published online March 4, 2020]. BMJ. doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.m513. Accessed March 5, 2020.