The Study
Dietary Intakes of Eggs and Cholesterol in Relation to All‐Cause and Heart Disease Mortality: A Prospective Cohort Study
This study watched over 37,000 people for about 8 years to see what happened to them. It found that eating eggs didn't seem to strongly change whether people died from any cause or heart disease. But because it just watched people instead of randomly assigning them to eat or not eat eggs, we can't say for sure that eggs caused these outcomes - we can only say they seemed to go together.
Analysis score
Maximum 72 for a cohort study.
Where the score came from
Eating up to one egg per day does not increase death risk in healthy US adults, but very high cholesterol intake (250mg+/day) may increase mortality.
Where does this study sit?
Reviews of RCTs (Meta-analyses)
Max 100Randomized Trials
Max 90Reviews of Cohort Studies
Max 85Cohort Studies
Max 72Reviews of Case-Control Studies
Max 63Case-Control Studies
Max 58Cross-Sectional & Case Series
Max 50Expert Opinion
Max 552 / 100
Quality score
Groups of people are followed over time to see who develops an outcome. Strong for identifying risk factors and associations, but cannot prove causation as firmly as RCTs.
Key takeaways
Summary
Based on the study abstract and findings.
- 1For most healthy adults, eating one egg daily appears safe.
- 2However, consuming high amounts of dietary cholesterol (≥250mg/day) may slightly increase death risk.
- 337,121 adults followed 7.8 years.
- 4One egg/day: no mortality increase (HR 1.04).
- 5Cholesterol <250mg/day: 13% lower death risk; ≥250mg/day: 7% higher death risk.
- 6No link to heart disease death.
Score breakdown, methodology, conflicts of interest, evidence analysis & raw study data
Publication
Journal
Journal of the American Heart Association: Cardiovascular and Cerebrovascular Disease
Year
2020
Authors
P. Xia, Xiong-Fei Pan, Chen Chen, Yi Wang, Y. Ye, A. Pan
Related Content
Claims (8)
Eating foods that contain cholesterol—like eggs or shrimp—won't make a healthy person more likely to get heart disease.
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.
If you're an adult in the US eating at least 250mg of cholesterol daily, research suggests that adding just 50mg more cholesterol to your diet might increase your risk of dying from any cause by about 7%.
Eating up to one egg each day doesn't seem to make adults more likely to die early or die from heart disease, according to a big study that tracked over 37,000 people 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.
Eating up to one egg per day is perfectly fine for most healthy adults and fits into a balanced diet, according to official US nutrition guidelines.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a qualified healthcare professional before making health decisions.