Browse evidence-based analysis of health-related claims and assertions
For most healthy people who eat a balanced diet, having one to three eggs a day doesn’t raise their bad cholesterol—but it might slightly raise their good cholesterol.
Descriptive
Some people’s cholesterol goes up a lot when they eat an egg a day—others barely notice. Scientists can tell who’s who by how much their bad cholesterol rises.
Causal
Some people have a gene version that makes their bad cholesterol spike more when they eat eggs—others don’t, and it’s all written in their DNA.
People whose bodies respond well to insulin see their bad and good cholesterol go up when they eat four eggs a day for a month, but their body handles it differently than people who are insulin resistant.
In Chinese adults, especially women, eating eggs is linked to healthier blood fat levels—lower triglycerides and higher good cholesterol—making dyslipidemia less likely.
Correlational
Your body naturally adjusts when you eat more cholesterol—it absorbs less of it and makes less of its own—so your blood cholesterol levels stay stable.
Mechanistic
Eating cholesterol doesn’t always raise your bad cholesterol, and when it does, it often raises your good cholesterol too, so your overall heart risk doesn’t change.
For people with high blood pressure, eating eggs may help them live longer, but getting cholesterol from meat or cheese might do the opposite.
Eating eggs doesn’t just raise your ‘bad’ cholesterol—it also raises your ‘good’ cholesterol and makes the bad cholesterol particles bigger and less harmful to your arteries.
Obese kids with fatty liver tend to eat more sugar, but when you look at their cholesterol and fat intake too, sugar doesn’t seem to be the main reason for their liver fat.
Obese kids who eat more saturated fat (like butter and fried foods) are more likely to have a fatty liver, but this link disappears when you account for cholesterol and blood fat levels — so it might not be the main cause.
Obese kids with high levels of 'bad' cholesterol (LDL) in their blood are more than two and a half times more likely to have a fatty liver, even if they eat the same as other kids.
Obese kids with higher levels of cholesterol in their blood are more than twice as likely to have a fatty liver, even if they weigh the same as other kids.
Obese kids who eat a lot of cholesterol (like eggs and fatty meats) are more than twice as likely to have a fatty liver, even if they weigh the same as other kids.
In the U.S., people who eat a lot of eggs also tend to eat a lot of bacon and white bread, and that combo might raise diabetes risk—not the eggs themselves.
Some people can eat a lot of eggs without their cholesterol levels going up because their bodies naturally make less cholesterol and absorb less from food.
Eating cholesterol doesn’t always raise your bad cholesterol, and when it does, it often raises your good cholesterol too—so your overall heart risk doesn’t change.
For people with high blood pressure, eating eggs may help them live longer, but getting cholesterol from meat or cheese doesn’t have the same benefit—and might even be harmful.
Eating eggs doesn’t just raise your ‘bad’ cholesterol—it also makes your ‘good’ cholesterol better and turns your bad cholesterol into bigger, less harmful particles.
Eating up to six eggs a week doesn’t raise your risk of heart disease or stroke, even if you have high blood pressure or other health issues.
PCSK9 doesn’t just cause inflammation — it also tricks immune cells into making more PCSK9, creating a cycle that keeps the inflammation going in artery plaques.
A new drug called CAP1-hFc that blocks PCSK9 from sticking to CAP1 works better at reducing inflammation in immune cells than current PCSK9 drugs like evolocumab, which only lower cholesterol.
Quantitative
Even when mice have too much PCSK9 and high cholesterol, if they have less of the CAP1 protein, their artery plaques don’t get as bad — proving CAP1 is needed for PCSK9 to cause inflammation.
People with heart disease have higher levels of PCSK9 in their blood, and that’s linked to higher activity of inflammation proteins in their immune cells — even when their cholesterol is low from taking statins.