Eating foods with cholesterol doesn't seem to make you more likely to die from heart disease, according to a big study that followed thousands of American adults for almost 8 years.

Eating more cholesterol might actually be linked to living longer if you eat small amounts (under 250mg daily), but eating lots of cholesterol (250mg or more daily) seems to be linked to a higher risk of dying from any cause.

In places where people eat more cholesterol from food, more people tend to die from heart disease over 25 years — it’s not proof one causes the other, but they often go together.

In places where people eat more cholesterol from food, more people tend to die from heart disease over 25 years — it’s not proof that cholesterol causes it, but there’s a noticeable link.

In countries where people eat more cholesterol from food, more people tend to die from heart disease over 25 years — and this pattern shows up consistently across 16 different groups of people in seven countries.

In US adults who eat less than 250mg of cholesterol daily, eating a bit more cholesterol seems to be linked to living longer, with each extra 50mg per day associated with about 13% lower risk of dying from any cause.